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Racism in Watchtower Publications

Most Jehovah’s Witnesses believe the Watch Tower Society is completely beyond reproach when it comes to issues surrounding racism and racial equality. When attending a meeting, convention, or assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses, one is instantly impressed at the intermingling and harmony between people of all ethnic backgrounds. Watchtower publications speak of all races being equal before a God who is “not partial.” Generally speaking, this philosophy filters down as a positive influence on the way members of different races treat one another within our organization. We even have a black brother, Samuel Herd, now sitting on the Governing Body!

However, things haven’t always been this way. In fact, the road to racial harmony has been just as “bumpy” for our organization as it has for many others. If you were to read some early Watchtower publications, you would doubtless be shocked and appalled by some of the offensive rhetoric employed by the writers of the Society’s literature back then. Indeed, if such literature was reprinted or otherwise circulated today as representing the Society’s current attitudes towards race, the organization would likely end up facing yet more serious legal entanglements, not to mention an outcry from their many non-white members spread across the globe.

Sadly, there are numerous examples of racial bigotry in the Society’s early literature, and few non-white races escape unscathed. I will attempt to catalogue some of the more offensive quotes in this article. For brevity, I will present a “timeline” of racist expressions as published by the Society, followed by a more thorough analysis of each quoted text in date order.

Black worshippers are now embraced as equals among Jehovah's Witnesses, but it hasn't always been this way

Quite understandably, some of the sentiments contained in the above timeline may horrify you, but they are all found in the Society’s publications or correspondence (as in the case of Rutherford’s letter to Hitler). It’s natural and commendable for you to respond in this way, since the Society’s own publications trained you to be tolerant of people of different races.

There is a reason the Society chooses to ignore their murky past when it comes to racial bigotry. It has to do with the prophetic significance they attach to the early “Bible Students,” as they were then known.

Put simply, the Watch Tower Society claims that Jesus Christ selected the Bible Students, led by Russell and Rutherford respectively, as representatives of his earthly organization in 1919. As you will see from the above timeline, this supposed “selection” by Christ came roughly right in the middle of a period when they were printing some of their most racially offensive articles. It seems inconceivable that Jesus Christ would recruit such a narrow-minded organization to represent him based on what they were writing at the time on matters of race. That is why the modern-day Society chooses to withhold this information, and instead points the finger at other religions for their racially bigoted histories.

Racism Under Russell

Charles Taze Russell was the founder of the Watch Tower Society, and the chief editor and publisher of Zion’s Watch Tower, as the Watchtower was known in those days.1 The distribution of the Watchtower magazine, as well as Russell’s other books, was almost entirely dependent on the work of “volunteers,” later known as colporteurs (the forerunners of today’s “pioneers”), whose job it was to offer subscriptions to readers. It seems that Russell was quite picky when it came to who could serve in this privileged capacity on behalf of the Society. In the March 1st issue of the Watchtower, his criteria deliberately restricted those who might serve as volunteers to members of “white Protestant churches.” Understandably, the black brothers at that time were none too pleased by the obvious discrimination, and wrote to the Society’s headquarters to complain. This was the printed response:

The above excerpt is taken from Zion’s Watch Tower, April 15th 1900, page 122.

[Click on any of the graphics to see a larger, full-screen version for easier reading.]

Russell’s magazine freely acknowledged that its discriminatory advertisement for volunteers was founded on a stereotype of blacks having “less education than whites.” Then it expressed his outrageous opinion that “reading matter distributed to a colored congregation would more than half of it be utterly wasted.” It seems difficult to fathom how Russell, who blushed at suggestions that he was God’s “Faithful and Wise Servant,” could harbor and promulgate such a deplorable and misconceived attitude towards black men and women. This bizarre outlook presented itself in his other writings, most notably when he touched on his strange obsession with “the Ethiopian’s skin.”

The above excerpt is taken from Zion’s Watch Tower, October 1st 1900, pages 296-297.

Russell believed that the skin of a black brother would turn white during the Millennial Kingdom

In the above article entitled “Can Restitution Change The Ethiopian’s Skin?” Russell leaps upon an incident whereby a black preacher claimed to have developed white skin after having prayed for it. Reverend Draper, who apparently told others that “if he could only be white like his employer, he would be happy,” started praying thirty years prior to the article and experienced a transformation over the period leading up to its publication. Once his skin was completely white, he returned to his former church, and had a hard time convincing the members of his identity. We now know that this “miraculous” transformation was the result of Vitiligo, a medical condition resulting in depigmentation of areas of skin. It isn’t that rare, and I’ve met people who have this condition. Perhaps you have too.

However, Russell was apparently so obsessed by the idea of black people becoming white that he would leap on any related report as evidence that this might happen on a grander scale in the future. The February 15, 1904 Watchtower reported a similar incident involving a nine-year-old boy named Julius Jackson under the heading “Can The Ethiopian Change His Skin?” which I reproduce below:

The above excerpt is taken from Zion’s Watch Tower, February 15th 1904, pages 52-53.

Again, it’s difficult to fathom why Russell was so preoccupied with the concept of blacks becoming whites. What was so wrong for him about their original color? Why would the color of a person’s skin make any difference to a God who is “not partial”? I suppose only Russell knew that answer.

A telling insight into Russell’s attitudes towards race came in another Watchtower article in 1902. That article, entitled “The Negro Not A Beast,” attempted to banish the extremely offensive idea being promulgated in a book of the period that black men and women were somehow on a par with animals. Despite its tacit opposition to this outrageous concept, the Watchtower’s riposte was tainted by more than a hint of racist ideology.

The above excerpt is taken from Zion’s Watch Tower, July 15th 1902, pages 215-216.

To paint Africa’s “various tribes or nations of negroes” as being “degraded” is a highly offensive racial slur by anyone’s standards. By comparison, it claims that the white race “exhibits some qualities of superiority over any other,” and enjoys “preeminence in the world.” Further down, that same article states that the Caucasian has “greater intelligence and aptitude” as a result of a “commingling of blood” under “divine control.” The article, which ironically sets out to counter racist arguments, ends up making more than a few of its own. We are left with an ideology that wouldn’t look out-of-place in a Nazi propaganda leaflet. Black people aren’t the only ones humiliated by this article; it also suggests that Indians and Chinese have some catching up to do genetically before they are to “equally brighten their intellects.”

At this point, it’s worth reminding ourselves that Charles Taze Russell didn’t necessarily pen these articles himself. Zion’s Watch Tower had at least five regular contributors. However, Russell was the chief editor and would have checked each article personally before approving it for print. Even if he hadn’t written a certain article himself, he would have signed off on it before publication in a magazine for which he was legally accountable. Therefore, readers may consider any racially offensive article published under his editorship as representing his views. I’m sure he would have scrapped any article without the slightest hesitation if it conflicted with his own opinions.

It wasn’t long before Russell’s dim view of the “colored brethren” generated yet more offense and outrage among his black readership. In January 1914, during a screening of the Photodrama of Creation at The Temple, West 63rd Street, a number of negro audience members were segregated from their white counterparts and made to sit separately on the balcony of the auditorium. This caused understandable outrage, and several wrote angry letters – furious that they had suffered such discrimination at the hands of their “brothers.” The Society printed a response under the heading “The Color Line Found Necessary” in the April 1 Watchtower, reproduced below:2

The above excerpt is taken from Zion’s Watch Tower, April 1st 1914, pages 105-106.

I can barely imagine the humiliation of turning up at a screening of the Photodrama as a “fan” of Russell at the time, only to be separated and herded like an animal into a different part of the theatre on account of the color of my skin. Then to add insult to my injury, be told that this was necessary to not upset white visitors, because “explain it how you will, a majority of whites prefer not to intermingle with other races.” I can’t imagine wishing to continue my association with the Bible Students after suffering such an indignity. After all, how could this be Christ’s church if “the success… of the enterprise of the Drama as respects the whites” was more important to the Society than observing racial equality? How could these truly be God’s people if they were so ready to pander to racist bigotry? Might it be because the leaders were racists themselves? These would have been my honest questions.

Any blacks who turned up to see the Photodrama screening in January 1914 at The Temple, West 63rd Street, were segregated

In any case, apparently not all so-called “colored brethren” were repelled by this incident. Evidently, the Society’s “audience numbers over equality” line of reasoning was “entirely satisfactory to all of the fully consecrated” with only a few “tenacious and quarrelsome” individuals objecting. It seems that, as respects this incident, everything boiled down to humility. After all, according to the article, “nature favors the colored brethren and sisters in the exercise of humility.” Although I believe the writer intended the remarks about humility as a pacifying compliment, they are also a clear nod towards the scourge of negro slavery that tarnished America before the Civil War. The writer attempts to commend the black readership for its perceived humble roots, irrespective of the despicable circumstances under which these were ostensibly forged.

The article then goes on to revert back to Russell’s obsession with the skin of an Ethiopian, or more pointedly, his belief that black Christians could expect their skin to change when the “Millennial kingdom will be inaugurated.” The writer tells us that, when that time comes, all mankind will experience “restitution to the perfection of mind and body, feature and color, to the grand original standard, which God declared ‘very good.’ ” Again, quite why a Christian would need to have the color of his skin changed to the “original standard” is a mystery, and Russell’s strange preoccupation with this offensive concept found yet another outlet in this article.

Racism Under Rutherford

Charles Taze Russell died on October 31st 1916. Thereafter, under somewhat controversial circumstances, Rutherford succeeded in seizing control of the Watch Tower Society. Russell’s high office as president wasn’t the only thing Rutherford inherited. It seems he also continued his predecessor’s penchant for racial bigotry.

As mentioned earlier, according to the current beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jesus Christ selected the Bible Students as his earthly congregation in 1919 after they had experienced a period of “cleansing.” Consider the following article, published in 1993, which affirms this teaching:

“From the time Christ’s presence began and down to 1918, the slave class, despite unpopularity, persecution, and even some confusion, had been seeking to give timely food to the domestics. This is what the Master found when his inspection began. The Lord Jesus was pleased, and in 1919 he pronounced that faithful approved slave class happy. What was the slave’s delightful reward for doing what his Master had appointed him to do? A promotion! Yes, larger responsibilities were given in advancing his Master’s interests. Since the Master was now a heavenly King, why, then, his earthly belongings became even more precious.” (The Watchtower, May 1st 1993, page 17)

So, Christ undertook an “inspection” of the organization based on the “timely food” (or literature) being distributed to the domestics by the Slave Class? If Jesus did indeed inspect the Society in 1919 on the basis of their literature (or “timely food”), then it’s difficult to imagine him looking favorably on the following article, published in the newly released Golden Age magazine (a forerunner to the Awake!) under Rutherford’s presidency.

The above excerpt is taken from The Golden Age, October 15th 1919, pages 105-106.

To provide some background, the article above was written (rather controversially by today’s standards) as a political argument against the recently introduced prohibition laws. As many of you know, Prohibition became law in America in 1920, making the sale of alcoholic beverages illegal.

Rutherford, who enjoyed his liquor, spoke of "sobering the southern negro" in an article against prohibition.

Rutherford was known to be partial to his liquor, and I would not be surprised if he was the actual writer of the above article. After all, as a lover of alcohol, he had a vested interest in stalling the prohibition movement, and I can think of no other reason the Society would feel the need to dabble in the politics of that time over this issue.

If Rutherford actually wrote this article, it certainly provides a unique insight into his racial views. The insinuation that all “southern negroes” are drunkards is a vicious racial slur, and the above sentiments would cause outrage if repeated in the Society’s literature today. It seems that whereas Russell had been more of a “spiritual racist” who tried to justify his views using biblically oriented arguments, Rutherford offered little or no justification for his racist views whatsoever, apart from spewing forth scathing and hopelessly erroneous generalizations based on his own preconceptions.

This book, which helped to abolish slavery in america, was branded "the work of Satan" by the Golden Age

An excellent example of such pompous bigotry is bountifully provided in another Golden Age article, published in the October 30, 1927 edition of the magazine (pages 140-143). This three-and-a-half page rant, penned under the name of J. L. Bolling, was a tirade of insults and accusations hurled at the author Harriet Beecher Stowe to discredit her famous and highly influential novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a fictional story depicting the brutal treatment of black slaves.

I’m sure many reading this article will have read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or are otherwise familiar with it. Many historians credit the book with playing a key role in bringing about the abolishment of slavery in America. It raised public awareness of the awful practice – surely an extremely noble and laudable cause in the minds of any genuine Christian. However, whoever Bolling was, he certainly didn’t believe that getting rid of slavery was a good idea. You may read it for yourself.

The article itself is so large that I’ve created a separate PDF download for those who would like to read it in its entirety: The Golden Age v Uncle Toms Cabin 1927. I’ll warn anyone who wishes to do so in advance that it’s arguably one of the most vulgar and outlandish of the Society’s articles that they are ever likely to encounter. The piece, entitled “The Story of Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is reproduced below, and all subsequent images are from the Golden Age article in question unless otherwise indicated. For the purposes of brevity, I will focus on some of the more intriguing quotes.

1927 Golden Age, Nov. 30th, pages 140-143

Bolling starts his article as he means to go on, with an outrageous assertion that Stowe was under the influence of spirit mediums when writing the book. He expands on this as follows…

1927 Golden Age, Nov. 30th, Pages 140-143

After providing an exhaustive overview of the spirit encounters alleged to have been experienced by Harriet Stowe’s husband, Calvin Stowe, Bolling asserts that these played a guiding role in inspiring her to write the book. Bolling goes so far as to suggest that Satan engineered Stowe’s marriage to her husband for this very reason. “Through her husband”, writes Bolling, “Mrs Stowe undoubtedly was strongly influenced by these wicked spirits; and this was doubtless Satan’s object in effecting their union in marriage.”

Bolling goes on to paint Stowe as an “impulsive” and “rash” author, prone to “coloring her narrative” and “caring little for facts” before sinking ever deeper into his astonishing tirade against what was, after all, a fictional novel. He leaves no stone unturned in finding grievances against Stowe, even suggesting that she was ill qualified to write a book of any great significance on account of her being a woman…

1927 Golden Age, Nov. 30, 140-143

Irrespective of what Stowe may or may not have said about Uncle Tom’s Cabin being an inspired work following its publication, the book itself doesn’t aspire to anything more than being a fictional tale depicting the terrible suffering of those living under the scourge of slavery before its abolishment in the United States. How anyone can reasonably compare it with the prophetic book of Revelation, which directly purports inspiration from God, is a complete mystery to me.

Bolling continues…

1927 Golden Age, Nov. 30, page 140-143

Bolling used Mrs. Stowe’s personal views against her, namely that she was divinely inspired while writing her book, or (as she allegedly said), “God wrote it.” Despite using Stowe’s words against her to try to prop up his arguments, he is very selective in what parts of Stowe’s reputed quotes he believes or refutes. He twists Stowe’s words about her book being the product of “an unknown power” into an outrageous claim that, far from being inspired by God, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (a book that helped abolish slavery) is “the work of Satan”!

I don’t think it’s remotely unfair to suggest that Bolling, whoever he was, was a brazen racist. Nobody who forms the opinion that a book instrumental in ending slavery is the product of the devil could conceivably view black men and women as his or her equals. However, perhaps unsurprisingly, Bolling’s racist views were not limited only to black people. In the last paragraph reproduced above, he describes Spaniards as a “backwards race.”

To quote more from Bolling’s article is futile. In resurrecting his venomous article from the dusty and long-forgotten archives of the Golden Age where it belongs, I have already provided a 21st Century platform to this long-dead racist to which he is far from worthy. Suffice to say, he continues his rant about Stowe to the end, and makes some bizarre claims about God’s plan for America. He claims that America is “the workshop and experimental laboratory of the time of the end”, and explains that Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one of many attempts by Satan to destroy America’s institutions. He even hails Abraham Lincoln as being “God’s chosen instrument in saving the Union” – proof (if it were needed) of how little credence should be attached to his crazy opinions.

I can already hear the objections of many who have read this far in my article. You’re perhaps yelling: “But hang on, this guy Bolling is not representative of Rutherford’s views, or of God’s organization for that matter. After all, the Golden Age ceased to be printed many decades ago!”

Firstly, as with Russell’s editorship of the Watchtower, “Judge” Rutherford was the Society’s president at the time when it published this article. He would have approved its release. Therefore, we can consider the article representative of Rutherford’s views as well as Bolling’s. Anything that rolled off the Society’s printing press at that time would have been considered as spiritual “food at the proper time” (Matt:24:45). Furthermore, according to the Society’s own (and more recent) publications, the Golden Age isn’t just considered a lowly forerunner to the Awake! – it WAS the Awake! Consider the following quote, published under the heading “Awake! – A Magazine With Broad Public Appeal” in the Society’s official history book:

“This magazine originally bore the title TheGoldenAge. The first issue was dated October 1, 1919. This was a magazine that reported on many fields of human endeavor. It alerted people to what was going on in the world and showed them that the real solution to mankind’s problems is Christ’s Millennial Reign, which will truly usher in a ‘golden age’ for humankind.” (Jehovah’s Witnesses – Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, page 724)

When you consider the above quote, and the fact that the Awake! magazines on your bookshelf are really just the same publication as those outlandish Golden Age magazines quoted from in the foregoing, it’s really quite remarkable to think that the Society once not only perpetuated racist ideology – it ferociously criticized those who spoke out against slavery!

I wish I could say the story ends there for racism under Rutherford’s watch, but it didn’t. More offensive articles would follow in the Golden Age under his presidency, including an absurd snippet reproduced below:

The above excerpt is taken from The Golden Age, July 25th 1928, page 684.

Not content with stereotyping black people as an object of amusement for school children, Rutherford went on to expound Russell’s strange ideology about the origins of the black race when questioned on the subject.

The above excerpt is taken from The Golden Age, July 24th 1929, page 702.

Whoever actually penned this article obviously couldn’t resist the temptation to go further than merely insinuating that the black race is the product of a curse. The writer was deluded enough to label black people “a race of servants”, and dwelled on the “joys” of slavery, even though one assumes he was not in bondage himself at the time of writing. He goes so far as to say: “There is no servant in the world as good as a good Colored servant, and the joy that he gets from rendering faithful service is one of the purest joys there is in the world.” As I said, I’m pretty sure the writer doesn’t speak from experience in telling of how joyful life is as a “good Colored servant.” What I AM sure of is that his views were extremely offensive and reflected a bigoted and demeaning view of black people in general. That such outrageous and deplorable opinions could find their way into a magazine purporting to represent spiritual food from God’s faithful “Slave Class” is even more incomprehensible.

Rutherford’s Anti-Semitism

As the 30s dawned, the world was beset by a troubling new age of fascism. One would like to think of the Society as being at the forefront of condemning fascist governments such as the one inflicted on the German people by the diabolical tyrant, Adolf Hitler. Sadly, when one investigates, one finds the reverse was true.

It doesn’t seem necessary to go into Rutherford’s flirtations with the Nazi Government at great length, not least because an excellent and comprehensive article is available on the subject on JWFacts.com. Instead, I will focus on the racial element of Rutherford’s overtures, particularly as found in his letter to Hitler, and his “Declaration of Facts” as published in the 1934 Yearbook.

Rutherford accused "Jewish business men" of "oppressing the people's of many nations"

To give a brief background to the documents mentioned above, I would first need to give you an extremely concise (perhaps over-simplified) version of events leading up to their publication. If anyone can give me documentary evidence that refutes my version of these events, I would be happy to receive this information and amend my account accordingly.

From the outset of Rutherford’s presidency, he wasted no time in stamping his mark on what he perceived as false Christendom – especially Catholicism. Publications such as The Finished Mystery unleashed scathing rebukes of the Catholic Church. These critiques weren’t quite as “death dealing” or “apocalyptic” as the Revelation Climax book leads us to believe, but they did succeed in well and truly getting on the nerves of the Catholic hierarchy, who at the time were highly influential in the world of politics. Perhaps unsurprisingly, once sufficiently riled by Rutherford’s constant provocations, they took their anger out on the Bible Students by getting governments to ban their work wherever possible. One country that was only too ready to do this was Nazi Germany.

Rutherford was then faced with German Bible Students being rounded up and sent to concentration camps for no other reason than because the Catholic church (which he had spent years provoking) had succeeded in getting their way with Hitler and his cronies. What did Rutherford do to reverse the situation? He told Hitler that the issue was just a huge misunderstanding, and actually the Bible Students were the friends of the Nazi government and not their enemies.

The aforementioned webpage on jwfacts has the original 3-page letter sent by Rutherford to Hitler in 1933, together with a translation into English (obviously the letter was prepared in German). Among other things, the letter proclaims the Watch Tower Society is “pro-German” and blames “Jewish businessmen and Catholics” for spreading propaganda against the Society and its directors, leading to their unfair arrest. Curiously Rutherford goes so far as to insist that “the Bible Students of Germany are fighting for the very same high ethical goals and ideals which also the national government of the German Reich proclaimed.”

In addition to his letter, Rutherford journeyed to Berlin to appear before the brothers there, and presented a “Declaration of Facts” to the delegates in attendance. The Declaration, which was essentially a watered-down version of his letter to Hitler, appeared in the 1934 Yearbook. Take note of an interesting quote from the Declaration:

The above excerpt is taken from the 1934 Yearbook, page 134.

I can’t help but grimace when I think of what it would have been like for the delegates in Berlin as they received these words from their leader, Rutherford. They were already in the grips of a lengthy period of persecution, thanks largely to the provocative and sensationalist writings of the man who stood before them. Unbeknownst to them, this persecution would only get worse, and claim the lives of many of them. Now they could see for themselves that the ideology of the “Judge” and that of their Führer was not so very different. Did they agree with him? Were they embarrassed? I suppose we will never know. I do know that if I had sat in that audience, any tenuous belief that Rutherford spoke as a representative of God’s organization on Earth would have been shattered the moment he began his brief but stinging tirade against Jewish businessmen. I can only be thankful that his disgraceful words and hateful rhetoric has long since been buried by an embarrassed Watch Tower Society, who after the war and Rutherford’s death must have looked back with total humiliation at how they could have so completely misjudged a clear conflict between good and evil, and ended up supporting the wrong side.

Today we hear so much in the Society’s literature of all those poor Bible Students who died at the hands of the Nazi Regime. The publications trumpet that they died by making a stand for neutrality, and ignore the inconvenient truth that the persecution arose, at least in part, through the urgings of a clergy that had been harassed to breaking point by Rutherford’s writings. The bravery of these men and women in refusing to yield to their persecutors through albeit misguided loyalties to Rutherford’s ideology is both profoundly admirable and heart wrenching. However, having researched this chain of events from an untainted perspective, it’s clear to me now that their deaths were entirely preventable. Arguably, nobody paid a heavier price for Rutherford’s stubborn and bigoted worldview than those poor German brothers. I can only hope that a similar situation involving persecution at the hands of political powers doesn’t present itself any time soon.

The Post-Rutherford Era

After Rutherford’s death, it seems the winds of change, including the civil rights movement in the 1960s, influenced the Society to abandon previous long-held racist views. Increasingly, blacks were accepted into higher offices within the Society. The Watchtower published no further racially offensive statements in any of its publications – except for the following published just before the civil rights movement gained momentum in a 1952 Questions From Readers:

“Many colored persons practice color-prejudice against their own people. Lighter-colored Negroes will shun the darker ones. Some from the Western Hemisphere look down upon the very dark ones from Africa. In South Africa, whites discriminate against the mixed coloreds, the mixed coloreds against the native blacks, the native blacks against the Indian coolies, and in their native India the Indians discriminate against the no caste or outcasts. Who is innocent to throw the first stone? Can we not see that all classes of the human race are evil, that if we start reforming we shall be lost in an impossible task, with endless discriminations and many varieties or injustices to beat down, which crusading social and political organizations of this world have hopelessly fought for years? For us to become like them would be to fail with them, consume our time in such reforms, lose out as Jehovah’s witnesses, and please only the Devil. So let us please God by preaching the gospel despite the undesirable conditions the Devil’s world may make for us. Let us not be sidetracked by Satan and caught in a subtle snare camouflaged in lofty motives and ideals. Can we not wait upon Jehovah to avenge the wrongs we suffer now? Really, our colored brothers have great cause for rejoicing. Their race is meek and teachable, and from it comes a high percentage of the theocratic increase. What if the worldly wise and powerful and noble look down on them as foolish and weak and ignoble, not on an equality with self-exalted whites? It is to God’s ultimate honor, for he confounds the wise of this world by choosing those the world considers foolish and weak and ignoble. Let us boast in Jehovah and in our equality in his sight, rather than wanting to boast in equality in the world’s sight. “(The Watchtower, February 1st 1952, page 95)

Arguably, this article is nowhere near as offensive as the vile bigotry published under Russell and Rutherford. However, a demeaning portrait of the blacks as a race that is “meek and teachable” is still painted. A racial stereotype, no matter how complimentary, is a racial stereotype nonetheless – and no race would revel in the false insinuation that they are prone to being gullible or easily manipulated. Like many of the excerpts reproduced above, if this quote appeared in a modern Watchtower magazine there would be understandable outcry. Obviously, the Society is cleverer than that! However, I’m still curious about how they suddenly found the courage to include the above quote on the Watchtower Library CD-ROM. Doubtless, they think it unlikely that regular publishers will uncover it.

Racism – Gone But Not Forgotten

The Society makes no mention in modern publications of the dreadful racial slurs that frequented the Watchtower publications in their murky past. Random admissions to having once celebrated birthdays or used the cross are one thing, but it takes a far deeper candor to admit to being a racist organization in their early beginnings – especially when approval by Christ was at stake in those days. To an extent I can understand their reluctance to come clean over their racist past. What I cannot fathom is the eagerness with which they have pursued other religions over their records of racial equality. Consider the following quote from a 1982 edition of Awake, in an article entitled “The Races – What Is Their Origin?”:

“Have the churches of Christendom always treated ‘everyone on the same basis’? Consider how the Catholic and Lutheran Churches supported Hitler’s scheme to produce a ‘master race.’ And for centuries the Catholic Church taught that Negroes were a cursed race. John F. Maxwell states in his book SlaveryandtheCatholicChurch that this view ‘apparently survived until 1873 when Pope Pius IX attached an indulgence to a prayer for the ‘wretched Ethiopians in Central Africa that almighty God mayatlengthremovethecurseofCham [Ham] fromtheirhearts.’ (Italics ours) And even to this day some church organizations openly practice racial discrimination.” (Awake! February 8th 1982, pp. 14-15)

One would think that the Society, with one eye on its own lurid record, would edge away from criticizing other religions over their racial history – but not a bit. They can still summon the gall to cry foul over the Catholic church’s former view of the blacks as a cursed race, even though this doctrinal standpoint ceased to form part of recognized Catholic dogma long before it left the pages of the Society’s literature. Indeed, the 1929 Golden Age printed this article on Noah’s curse a full 56 years after this Pope’s remarks on the subject were made known. And in a supreme irony, the Society recognizes the very magazine that criticized Pope Pius IX in 1982 as being the same journal that printed similar remarks in 1929 under the banner The Golden Age! Surely there are few more jaw-dropping examples of hypocrisy in the Society’s literature than an Awake! article that criticizes a dead Pope for making racist comments similar to those expressed in its own pages far more recently. – Luke 6:42

Pope Pius IX issued the last racially offensive expression on behalf of the Catholic church 56 years before the Society printed very similar rhetoric, but was still criticized in an Awake article on race.

My purpose in compiling and writing this article is not excessive criticism of the Watch Tower Society. After all, as I mentioned at the outset, the modern Society devotes many pages to encouraging unity and equality between people of all races – as is evident when one attends Witness gatherings. I merely draw attention to the racial history of the organization because it has been deliberately suppressed to reinforce the Society’s claims to divine direction.

If the leadership were to claim no special standing before God, and could humbly admit to (and take responsibility for) ALL of its former indiscretions, that would be one thing. Instead, when we look at the Watch Tower Society objectively, we see an organization obsessed with stamping its authority on people’s lives as God’s sole channel of communication, insisting on perfect submission to its teachings by its followers despite being in complete denial of its own murky past. Its tenuous claim to divine appointment is that Christ chose the early Bible Students, the forerunners of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in 1919 on the basis of “spiritual food” being produced at that time. To insist on the unquestioned loyalty of worshippers towards the organization on this erroneous basis, under threat of being disfellowshipped and potentially separated from loved ones, is both deplorable and immoral.

I hope that by writing this blog article, in furtherance of similar articles written in the recent past, I will have taken another step towards setting the record straight and educating thinking Jehovah’s Witnesses as to the true origins of their deeply held beliefs.

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Comments

Racism in Watchtower Publications — 128 Comments

Hi Fred. Those are strong words to use without offering a specific reason for why it is “totally stupid.” Are you saying information has been presented inaccurately? If so, please let me know in what way, and I will make changes accordingly. From what I can see, I am far more thorough in my research than you are in your commenting.

Cedars, I was very impressed with your research. And if it gives you any comfort, Abe Lincoln said that there will always be a few fleas that a dog can never reach, in particular the name-calling variety who believe what they want to believe, facts be damned.

1. You don’t know if Rutherford wrote about prohibition and negros. A matter of fact Rutherford respected probitionists.

Also, Rutherford love negros and was very glad as they were coming into the congregations.

2. You said that Rutherford was ant-semitic. That is FALSE and you should know since he defend the Jews during the WW2. At least he had the balls to do it. Plus, historians knew that Rutherford was not anti-semitic. You think he was anti-semitc because James Penton believes it.

Fred, you are clearly reading this article with blinders. Cedars makes acknowledgements that he doesn’t know for a fact if Russell or Rutherford wrote any of the articles listed. But he provided a VERY accurate understanding that the President (Russell and Rutherford in their own times) was the final say in anything that was released by the Watchtower Society.

If there is an issue of the Zion Watchtower or any other Watchtower publication that blatantly and utterly disregards the worth of anoth human being based on race, Russell and Rutherford read and approved the article for the public. Just as much as if they approved an article saying overexposure to UV rays is healthy for the skin (which again, happened).

Again, Cedars made no definite accusation that either president wrote anything. He does point out that inexcusably, the two men supported those idea enough to print them as Watchtower doctrine.

Maybe you should actually read what you’re criticizing, because anyone who looks at your comments will now know how ignorant and one-sided you are. This article was fair and balanced, which is rare these days, and offered the reader the opportunity to create an opinion based on the facts alone, as the author displayed the facts, offered references (more than any Watchtower magazine has in over 130 years), and then something people like you don’t.

The author offered his opinions about the items presented but dismissed them as his own opinion, instead of “general consensus” or “fact.”

This article could have been about the grade of paper used in the magazines and you would have shot it down because the Society would have told you “if it’s about us but not on one of our sites, it’s Apostate material.” Hell, they go so far as to call their own magazines from a few years ago Apostate material.

Get over yourself and actually read the piece without an opinion already formed.

I fear Fred may be a believing JW. You have to be to try and defend an utterly indefensible cult like the JWs. This blog is clearly well researched and most enlightening. Fred has nothing with which to counter its clearly referenced and evidenced assertions. JWdom has an ugly racist history which it is now desperately trying to cover up. In the internet age, fortunately, murky pasts can no longer be concealed. Fred; if you object to an organisation founded by racists and now run by liars, you have no choice but to leave the Jehovah’s Witnesses. (If indeed you are a member)

No Fred, I actually don’t want to believe everything that is said. How disgusting a notion that the founder (Russell) and the foundation layer (Rutherford) could claim “Warm Christian Love” but take part in supporting worldly ideas like segregation, racial bias, and pandering to stereotypical racial propaganda.

Unfortunately, the proof isn’t just on the net. If you have a Kingdom Hall that’s well-to-do, there is a pretty good chance you have a library housing the exact same documents Cedars has displayed. If not, you have the address to a branch office that you can write to for photocopies of these documents.

When you can feel the paper under your fingertips as you read the truth, it becomes very VERY real.

So Fred, everyone is trying to get answers from you. Cedars has been thorough with his presentation and I feel I have been as well. Rowland has pointed out very astute “gives” about yourself.

I’ll ask you as well. You said “historians knew Rutherford wasn’t anti-semitic.” Who are these “historians” and what Kingdom Hall do they attend? There are no historians who support the claim that Rutherford was pro-Jew. So name me three who aren’t Witnesses that support your argument.

At least be Christian if you’re going to pretend to be Christian. Don’t lie in the hopes people are dumb enough to believe you. Especially if all the proof against you is present. I’m only 28 and I’m wise enough to know “nuh-uh” isn’t a viable argument.

As Rowland notes, you do betray more than a hint of bias towards supporting the Society irrespective of the evidence. I have provided a scanned copy of Rutherford’s 1919 statement about “sobering the southern negro”. As I point out in my article – if he didn’t pen the words himself, then he certainly approved their publication. You can’t have the best of both worlds, i.e. be president of a religious organization but distance yourself from the words published by it, particularly when these are heralded without exception as “food at the proper time” (or “meat in due season” as Rutherford would have said). Rutherford’s anti-semitism is clear from his Declaration of Facts, which again is reproduced from the 1934 Yearbook. I’m not sure how you can read his vile rant against “the commercial Jews” without reaching the conclusion that he had at least a degree of anti-semitic sentiment.

I’m sorry, but your remarks seem to be based more on wishful thinking than documented evidence.

Again, Fred has replied, but produced no evidence. I am inclined to believe, not ‘everything that is said’, particularly from someone like Fred, who merely makes assertions with no evidence or references. When, however, I read the racist and anti semitic remarks from Russell and Rutherford themselves, and racist and anti semitc writings in the publications under their autocratic control, I have little option but to believe.

As a matter of interest, Fred, are you a JW? I can see no other motive for your vain attmept to defend the past leaders of a singularly destructive and nasty little cult.

Thanks to Fred Hall for informing me of the existence of James Penton. Never heard of him before today. I guess he’s one of those cautionary boogymen to the Witnesses, like Ray Franz. None of the Witnesses baptized after 1981 actually knows who either is, but are instructed to disregard any published works by the men.

I believe I got my information and understanding of the WTS’ racist anti-semite past from the Zion’s Watchtowers that promoted that garbage line of thinking. Cuz, as stated before, I didn’t know who Penton was until you ran your mouth.

I doubt that we will hear from Fred again. James Penton’s book ‘APocalypse Delayed’ is a fine account of all the doctrinal flip flops and duff prophecies that make up JW history. He was a 3rd generation Canadian JW. In his book he does at least give JWs credit for advancing afew democratic freedoms, like the right not to salute the flag and the right for lay people to preach to the public. JWdom, however, hates nothing more than ‘apostates’. Hence the outfit is now in turmoil as ‘apostates’ no longer have to get into print, like Penton and FRanz, in order to expose the foul and destructive JW cult. Facebook groups, Youtube vids and blogs like this are all over the place and easily accessible by anyone curious about JWdom. The truth about JW TRUTH is easily available for all to see, and Fred and others do not like it and can do nothing about it.

You have not analyze the Declaration of Facts like Detlef Garbe. In his book “Between Resistance and Martyrdom” – Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Third Reich –

In Garbe preface to the English edition in Hamburg of November of 2007, on page xix par. 2, he says:

“… However, it was not possible to incorporate findings of more recent literature. For instance, the new book by M. James Penton, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Third Reich: Sectarian Politics under Persecution (University of Toronto Press, 2004), has not been taken into consideration. In this context, however, I would like to refer the reader to my comments about Penton’s previous publications, which he also uses as a basis for his new study. His statements, source selection, and interpretation reflect a deep-seated aversion against this religious association, of which he had once been a member. According to Penton’s new theory, in 1931/1932 the Watch Tower Society’s President Rutherford made adjustment in the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses with regard to determining its relationship to Judaism because, in Germany, everything pointed the fact Hitler would come to power. In this way, Rutherford supposedly wanted to adapt to anti-Semitic aggression of National Socialism. Contemporary literature does not support such assumptions. In fact, reports in Jehovah’s Witnesses’ magazine Golden Age during that time period show that, in the publications of Jehovah’s Witnesss, the Hitler movement was clearly criticized as being ungodly and anti-Semitism was strongly condemned. Penton does indeed have a right to hold reservations against the religious teachings and pratices of Jehovah’s Witnesses, but from a historiographic viewpoint Penton’s writings perhaps show a lack of scientific objectivity.”

The Brooklyn headquarter of the Watchtower Society is pro German in an exemplary way and has been so for many years. For that reason, in 1918, the president of the Society and seven members of the board of directors were sentenced to 80 years in prison, because the president refused to use two of the magazines published in America under his direction for war propaganda against Germany. These two magazines, “The Watchtower” and “Bible Student” were the only magazines in America which refused to engage in anti-German propaganda and for that reason were prohibited and suppressed in America during the war.

In the very same manner, in course of the recent months the board of directors of our Society not only refused to engage in propaganda against Germany, but has even taken a position against it. The enclosed declaration underlines this fact and emphasizes that the people leading in such propaganda (Jewish businessmen and Catholics) also are the most rigorous persecutors of the work of our Society and its board of directors. This and other statements of the declaration are meant to repudiate the slanderous accusation, that Bible Researchers are supported by the Jews.

The conference of five thousand delegates also noted – as is expressed in the declaration – that the Bible Researchers of Germany are fighting for the very same high ethical goals and ideals which also the national government of the German Reich proclaimed respecting the relationship of humans to God, namely: honesty of the created being towards its creator.

The conference came to the conclusion that there are no contradictions when it comes to the relationship between the Bible Researchers of Germany to the national government of the German Reich. To the contrary, referring to the purely religious and unpolitical goals and efforts of the Bible Researchers, it can be said that these are in full agreement with the identical goals of the national government of the German Reich.

We are looking forward to your kind approval, which we hope to receive soon, and want to assure our highest respect to you, honorable Mr. Reichskanzler.

Yours faithfully,
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society Magdeburg

A beautiful cheek puckering letter written by the (At the time OWNED by our favorite Judge/First Faithful and Discreet Slave member, Brother Rutherford to his pen pal the Hitler.

“We don’t take money from no stinkin’ jews!!!” (I’m paraphrasing a bit but same implications are clearly made.)

I’m an African American who was raised in this religion, and didn’t wake up till the ripe age of 20. I fully accept the fact that this religion has and is still teaching, as well as corrupting people of my race (All races they can get their hands on for that matter).

People of my race that has put their entire hope, faith as well as families into an organization that has openly made remarks degrading them and their character, stating that simply praying to Jehovah will cure them of their melanin based ailments. Then later on disfellowshipping any who would speak against those statements now, labeling the ignorant statements as proof of their non-divine, would-be, self-proclaimed lord ship.

It’s appalling and I suggest all people wake up and listen to what they are telling you and comparing it to the things they have told you in the past, or rather lack there of.

Fred, please can you give me the references to which Garbe refers when he says:

“In fact, reports in Jehovah’s Witnesses’ magazine Golden Age during that time period show that, in the publications of Jehovah’s Witnesss, the Hitler movement was clearly criticized as being ungodly and anti-Semitism was strongly condemned.”

I assume this statement is backed up by references as footnotes in the preface? I would check myself, but I don’t have a copy of that book handy. I personally wouldn’t write something as strong-worded as that without having a few obvious references to hand by way of an example. If it is true, then the Declaration of Facts and Rutherford’s letter to Hitler would be entirely contradictory of such printed ‘condemnation’ of Hitler’s government and anti-semitism. This may be evidence of the Society speaking with a ‘forked tongue’, so I would appreciate those references.

WHen one person’s religion, the religion that overshadowed my childhood, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, has a record of nothing but duff prophecy, broken families from its shunning policy, unnecessary deaths from its ever changing blood policy, then it deserves all the ‘bickering’ it gets and more.

I was lucky. I was never baptised and only my mother was a fully paid up member. I was able to avoid the worst of its horrors. As Cedars points out your refutation of Rutherford’s antis Emitism is unevidenced and you have produced nothing to challenge the demeaning remarks of RUssell and Rutherford about ‘coloureds’.

And a final word about ‘bickering’ others’ religion. This ‘bickering’ is the main theme of JWdom. At the Kingdom Hall I was ever reminded how all religions outside JWdom were the work of Satan and due for divine murder at Armageddon, due, back then, before the end of the 20th century and the death of the 1914 generation.

As one who claims to desist from ‘bickering’ about oithers’ religion can we assume you are true to your principles and are not a JW? If you are not why seek to defend an outfit that looks forward to the day when God murders you so that the survivng JWs can enjoy eternity on a Paradise earth free from Satanic influences like (you?) and me?

One doubts he ever read the book himself, but instead knows how to navigate the wikipedia articles.

Yes, Fred. The Declaration of Facts does not include antisemitic commentary, but the Watchtower Magazines under Rutherford’s watch are littered with anti-semitic comments. Which is EXACTLY what was portrayed in this article.

Let’s all notice that Garbe wrote in the same book that only 900 something Witnesses died during WWII, this includes german and non german as a total number.

This contrasts to the 2500 to 5000 Jehovah’s Witnesses that the WTS advocates as being killed in Hitler’s camps.

This becomes a problem for your source, Fred. If he’s unreliable about one thing, how can his information be reliable in other things. It’s what we in the real world call “picking and choosing.”

You can’t say Garbe is a reliable historian because he shoots down James Penton and then say he’s wrong about the number of Witnesses he claims died in WWII. He’s a JW WWII historian. If any of his facts are wrong, he compromises the totality of his report.

So, who else do you have besides a “reliable” historian of Jehovah’s Witnesses in WWII that you argue is wrong about pretty major statistics?

Fred, I’ve never purported to “know it all” – it sounds like (as with your original comment) you are resorting to cheap jibes through frustration, which does your case no favors. I consider your opinions to be just as valuable as anyone else’s, and I appreciate it when I am afforded the same dignity. You sounded from your previous post like you had a copy of Garbe’s book. Since I am not currently in a position to consult a copy anytime soon (I live in a non-English speaking country, and have no access to a library) please could you humor me by giving me the WT references that support Garbe’s comments that you quoted above?

It wouldn’t surprise me if no references were given for this comment. On the other hand, if there are references provided by Garbe to back up his comments, I would consider these evidence of the Society speaking with a “forked tongue”, since any negative generalization against “commercial jews” such as the one given by Rutherford in his “Declaration of Facts” is a racial slur, and therefore anti-semitic by its very nature. If Rutherford wasn’t anti-semitic, as you suggest, then he should have had the presence of mind not to speak the words reproduced above in front of a packed stadium in Berlin. As it is, he did speak those words because he himself had penned them. They reflect his thoughts and convictions, which included a belief that the misfortunes of the Society and “many peoples” were at least partly due to oppression/persecution at the hands of “commercial jews”.

FYI – I consider Rutherford’s over-use of the word “fact/s” to be quite telling as to his character (i.e. “Face The Facts”, “Declaration of Facts”). Surely if there is anyone in the history of the Society who considered himself a “know it all”, it was he.

Fred Hall typifies every Jehovah’s WItness when confronted with the foul facts about that obscene and destructive little cult. He has no defence for the utterly indefensible. It is clear that he is a Jehovah’s WItness. He has not denied it, and nobody outside that cult would defend an organisation which looks forward to the day when Jehovah murders the greater part of humanity (i.e. all non JWs). In that last desperate and idiotic post he has made assumptions about my circle of friends. This typifies his habit of making unevidenced assertions. WHat exactly motivates you, Fred, to spout such rubbish? Have you devoted your life to being an unpaid mag. distributor for a Brooklyn based cult and cannot bear to confront the fact that your time has been utterly wasted? Have you followed your JW bosses’ diktats to avoid all ‘worldly’ association and find you have nowhere else to go for company besides the Kingdom Hall? Many have made the break and found a new life after decades of mental imprisonment by the WBTS. I hope you too, Fred, can find your way to the Kingdom Hall exit. Best wishes.

Do ask me about spout and rubbish, when your buddy Cedar puts up a picture of Rutherford not drinking beer. A matter of fact it could be rootbeer!! Also, Cedar should did more research on who was for or agianst prohibition.

Fred, if you continue to be insulting and evasive of questions, we will need to start deleting your comments. If your concerns about the article were genuine, you would have provided me with references by now to support your claims. Instead, all we get are more insults. Kindly provide the references in your next post, or we won’t be entertaining your comments any longer. Also, if you are in ignorance as to Rutherford’s alcoholism, then it’s clearly you who needs to do more research, and not I. Cedars

This Rowland is a real product of the WTS through brain washining. I left the cult and started to search from its own publications. Let him read g82 8/2 p. 20-23; g82 8/3 p. 4; g78 8/4 p. 28-29; Here the cult improved and started saying the Black come from Cush the Son of Ham!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please, Rowland, take your Bible and read Jeremiah 51:14 “Jehovah of armies has sworn by his own soul,‘I will fill you with men, like the locusts,and they will certainly sing forth over you a shout” and let people like CEDARS prevent brain washing.

Jeremiah was the poet of the Jewish exile in Babylon. All very interesting for historians. It is tragic that the 3 Abrahamic religions imagine that mankind’s history is predetermined, and that the future can be read through their Holy books. When that future involves the occupation of the Bible lands by one group of believers and not another, then Middle East peace becomes impossible. I hope to live long enough to see religion fade away entirely. The Cold War and the Soviet Empire seemed, for decades, to be eternal fixtures, but they evaporated in no time. The same could happen with Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Fred is doing the campaign to destroy the WBTS a great service. Like all believing JWs, he is demonstrating to any casual reader, curious about the Jehovah’s WItnesses, the tragic state of mind that results from associating with that cult. He cananot bear to face the truth about that foul and obscene notion of JW TRUTH. He will provide no references to back up his claims about Rutherford not having a drinking problem and not being anti Semitic, because there are none. At least when he wanders back, grumbling, to his Kingdom Hall, the doubts this article has sown, will gnaw at his mind. On here he has merely hit out in an inarticulate way. Hopefully he will begin to realise that in the internet age, the era of dictators is over; that goes for nation states as much as it goes for his totalitarian little cult. Let us hope Fred has the time and the will to make a life for himself which amounts to more than being an unpaid mag. distributor for a corrupt publishing and property corporation.

Oh Dear. Fred’s desperation increases. Even if the Rutherford pic can be definitively proved to show that lemonade was being drunk in that scene, Fred has done nothing to demonstrate that Rutherford was not an anti Semite. Drink, any way, is an incidental issue in the article; racism is the main theme.

Perhaps Cedars could silence Fred once and for all by providing evidence for Rutherford’s known weakness for liquor, which, to be fair, is mentioned in the article but with no suppporting reference. Fred has failed to counter the clear evidence of JWdom’s grubby racist past. Sure, he has not demonstrated that Rutherford aand alcohol did not mix, but it would be salutary to show that clutching at that straw will not prevent Fred from drowning in a sea of JW lies and deception.

Thank you Rowland. I actually deleted Fred’s last post because he continued in his insulting behavior and refused to provide references to his assertions. He also demanded that I prove that alcohol was being consumed in the photograph of Rutherford above, even though nowhere in my article or subsequent comments to this article have I insisted or even insinuated what kind of beverage was being drunk on that particular occasion, or that Rutherford was even drinking here at all (although I personally find it difficult to believe that he wasn’t), and judging by the looks on others faces I can’t imagine that it was “root beer”.

Suffice to say, there is more “evidence” that Rutherford “enjoyed his liquor” (as I said above) than there is that he was a teetotaller. The following quote is from ‘Apocalypse Delayed’ by James Penton, 1997 pages 72 and 73:

“Although Jehovah’s Witnesses have done everything possible to hide accounts of the judge’s drinking habits, they are simply too notorious to be denied. Former workers at the Watch Tower’s New York headquarters recount tales of his inebriation and drunken stupors. Others tell stories of how difficult it sometimes was to get him to the podium to give talks at conventions because of his drunkenness. In San Diego, California, where he spent his winters from 1930 until his death, an elderly lady still speaks of how she sold him great quantities of liquor when he came to purchase medicines in her husband’s drugstore.”

I personally believe that if the above quote by Penton were unfair or otherwise slanderous, the Watch Tower Society with their considerable legal resources would have prevented it from being published.

There is also a quote from Barbara Anderson, a former Bethel worker who had the following to say about a time when she was asked to search the Society’s archives for material when researching for the ‘Proclaimers’ book (taken from http://www.watchtowerdocuments.com):

“In one of these drawers, finding personal photographs of the second president of the Watchtower Society, Joseph F. Rutherford, was, for me, one of the most disagreeable and revolting discoveries. Rutherford was clad in a dark-colored, one-piece, skin-tight, sleeveless swimsuit which covered him down to his thighs, a garment popular in the late 1920s and 30s. He had a huge belly, and appeared to be having fun romping on a large patio which overlooked the ocean. I seem to remember there were other people in a few photos lying on chaise lounges. The photo I’ll never forget was a close-up of Rutherford’s face; he was about a foot from the camera with his tongue stuck out as far as it could possibly go. He looked to me to be inebriated.”

Fred has demonstrated himself to be the type of person who will claim Rutherford was not anti-semitic even though he wrote and gave documented speeches containing anti-semitic sentiments. He is therefore unlikely to accept evidence, documented or otherwise, of Rutherford’s alcoholism even if it is staring him in the face. It is this attitude, together with his seeming habit of insulting people who disagree with his mindset, that has led me to block further posts of his until he shows a more respectful and benign attitude. I am not against him raising sincere questions about this material, far from it – but I draw the line at insulting behavior.

Again, interesting writing/research. Indoctrinated JWs will defend the ‘Mother’ organization even in the indefensible. The popes of the WT have skeletons in their closet, as does the organization (Malawi vs Mexico military, etc.). No religious group is immune from racism, including Mormons, etc. (the historical roots can be bad and should not be ignored even if they have changed views more recently).

Thank you Cedars. You are right JWdom is wealthy enough to employ efficient lawyers whenever there is a ghost of a chance of it getting its way with this ‘wicked worldly, Satanic system’. Obviously there is no legal, ‘worldly’ way that it can blot out information about Rutherford, the drunken racist who founded JWdom.

Fred Hall,
Thank you for the link to that rather obscure reference. The writer clearly had little real knowledge of who Judge Rutherford was (he didn’t even get his first name right) and had only read a few minor pieces of the Judge’s works. Rutherford spent much of the 1920’s and 30s complaining about the “conspiratorial Jews,” partly to negate Pastor Russell’s grudging admiration for the Jews as they tried to reestablish Israel through the Zionist movement. What is most evident in this article is the writer’s admiration for the rank and file Jehovah’s Witnesses who were willing to put their lives and freedom on the line by refusing to join in “heils” and the Nazi salute. Even though Jehovah’s Witnesses did not stand up and fight for the Jews in any significant way, they too were persecuted, making them (by default) “brothers-in-arms” for standing up to Hitler. Other minority churches were persecuted as well, including Adventists, Christian Scientists, and even Mormons. Their numbers, however, were very small and they were mostly ignored by the press in Germany and America. Rutherford deserves very little credit for standing up to Hitler – but rather praising Hitler on many occasions.

How many Jews had heard of the guy? As you can see from Cedars’ evidence Rutherford was a racist and an anti Semite. Why, Fred, are you so desperate to salvage the reputation of the founder of an obscene little cult which orders its followers to look forward to a day when God murders the greater part of humanity?

I presume you are a follower of, a member of, this cult which was founded by a racist and an anti Semite. Now you know the facts about your founder do you still believe his cult is God’s sole earthly mouthpiece?

You have provided no references and answered no questions. I do not expect answers. JWdom’s claims are absurd and unevidenced as they are cruel and damaging. I can only hope that others will read this thread and see the terrible state of mind of one who has been unfortunate enough to have been deceived by JWdom and become an unpaid mag. distributor. In the JW world you are forced to work for no reward, to spend your own time and money in order to increase the wealth of a global publishing and property empire. With or without the drink the JW outfit today is a fitting monument to its thoroughly nasty founder.

Hannah vividly remembers the Monday afternoon that two of Jehovah’s Witnesses came to her grandparents’ Munich home. Her grandmother had invited the two ladies into the kitchen, and over tea they discussed the ominous events of that day—January 30, 1933. Adolf Hitler had just become Chancellor of Germany.

Seven-year-old Hannah listened to the agitated conversation. “Most of it I didn’t understand,” she admits. But her grandmother said about the visit that she “felt comforted, like they were kindred spirits at that moment.” Hannah remembers watching the two visitors disappear down the street. She recalls, “Then, my grandmother said, ‘Don’t be afraid. These are good people, and they are trying to help us.’ I remembered that all my life.”

As the Hitler administration quickly hardened into a terrifying totalitarian machine, Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others had foreboding evidence that perilous times lay ahead for them, although few could have known just how perilous things were to become.

In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, roving bands of brown-shirted Nazi thugs often broke up religious meetings of the Bibelforscher (or Bible Students, as Jehovah’s Witnesses were called until 1931). The Witnesses were vilified in the Nazi and religious press as a dangerous, subversive sect seeking to undermine German values and society. The propaganda often charged the Witnesses with having ties to supposed Jewish-Bolshevist world conspiracies. The Witnesses’ insistence on using the Hebrew name of God didn’t help matters, nor did their refusal to “cleanse” their literature of Hebrew Scripture references and Hebraic terms.

The February 28, 1933, Decree for the Protection of the People and the State provided the legal basis to suppress Hitler’s enemies, including the Witnesses.

Despite the growing frequency of raids, harassment, and arrests, the Witnesses in early 1933 hoped that it was all a misunderstanding based perhaps on the libelous charges of religious opponents. Initial communication with the new government earnestly sought to explain that Jehovah’s Witnesses are politically neutral. They did not believe in taking up arms; therefore, they posed no subversive threat to any government, including Germany’s.

That was not what the government wanted to hear. It expected subservience, silence, and loyalty from German churches. What the Witnesses described as political neutrality the government saw as seditious insubordination. The Witnesses, numbering about 25,000 in Germany, quickly found themselves at odds with the Nazis. Holding on to religious beliefs in the totalitarian state would soon put life and livelihood in jeopardy.

The Christian theology of the Witnesses diametrically opposed Nazi ideology on three basic points: The Witnesses rejected racism, ultranationalism, and the deification of the State and its fuhrer. The Witnesses obey governmental authority, but they owe prior allegiance to God and his Kingdom. Therefore, if a government demands what God prohibits, or prohibits what God requires, the choice for the individual Witness is clear. This position threw thousands of Witnesses into a pitched spiritual battle with the Nazis.

On the streets, at factories, in schools, and even in homes, the Hitler salute signaled the people’s fidelity to the fuhrer. The calculated messianic symbolism of the Hitler salute, meaning in essence “Salvation comes from Hitler,” was not lost on the Witnesses. They couldn’t heil a mere man. This daily, visible refusal soon led to beatings, firings from jobs, destruction of property, and prison sentences. Out of obedience to God and love of neighbor, Witnesses would not join the Nazi Party, Labor Front, or Hitler Youth, nor would they vote in elections, observe boycotts of Jewish businesses, serve in the military, or perform war-related work.

In June 1933 the regime outlawed the religion, its literature, and its activities. In August, the authorities confiscated the Witnesses’ printing plant in Magdeburg, burning 25 truckloads of Bibles and Witness literature. Witnesses were banned from civil service jobs and became virtually unemployable. Being married to a Witness became legal grounds for divorce. Witness children were expelled from schools, and nearly 500 of them were taken away to be raised in Nazi penitentiary homes and reform schools. Businesses, pensions, social security benefits, and wages were seized. Witnesses were paraded through the streets, wearing placards that read, “We are traitors! We did not vote!”

Officials charged the Witnesses with “not conforming to racial and national idealism” and “openly ignoring national bodies,” according to Professor Christine King, vice chancellor of Staffordshire University and leading authority on the Witness experience in Nazi Germany. Being a Witness thus became sufficient grounds for arrest and imprisonment. Incarcerated by the hundreds, the Witnesses in camps bore on their uniforms the purple triangle, the only camp symbol designating a non-Jewish religious group.

The Gestapo and Criminal Police assigned special units to hunt down Witnesses and destroy the religion. Despite a nationwide sweep that netted thousands in August 1936, members continued to meet in secret and to carry on their ministry work underground. Two daring protest campaigns in December 1936 and June 1937 shocked Nazi officials, as the Witnesses blanketed the country with leaflets detailing the regime’s human rights abuses. “During the whole length of the Nazi era in Germany, no other resistance organization took comparable initiatives,” wrote German scholar Dr. Elke Imberger. The repressive Nazi measures in part caused the Witnesses’ stance to take on the character of resistance, albeit nonpolitical and nonviolent.

By 1938, Nazi prisons and camps held about 6,000 Witnesses, about 5 to 10 percent of the total prewar camp population. Concurrent with the travails of the Witnesses, the Jewish community was feeling the ever-intensifying heat of Nazi terror. The plight of the Jews did not escape the sympathetic attention of the Witnesses, both in Germany and abroad. One month prior to Kristallnacht, Watch Tower Society president J. F. Rutherford voiced outrage in an international radio broadcast, saying: “The Devil has put his representative Hitler in control, a man who is of unsound mind, cruel, malicious and ruthless . . . He cruelly persecutes the Jews because they were once Jehovah’s covenant people and bore the name of Jehovah, and because Christ Jesus was a Jew.”

Witness literature became an instrument of spiritual resistance, exposing the criminal actions of the Nazi regime and its murderous antisemitic agenda. Witness prisoners wrote secret reports of camp conditions. These were smuggled out and printed in the Witness journals The Watchtower and Consolation (forerunner of Awake!). The 1938 Witness book Crusade Against Christianity contained diagrams of the camps Sachsenhausen and Esterwegen. Consolation of May 4, 1938, said, “History never recorded a more systematic, efficient, devilish obliteration of Jews than at present in Germany.” Following the November pogrom, Consolation asked, “How can one remain silent?”

Chilling descriptions of the attack on European Jewry appeared frequently in Witness publications. Hundreds of column inches detailed and decried the destruction of the Jews’ religious, social, and economic life, and ultimately, the physical annihilation of the Jews.

During and after Kristallnacht, according to historian Anton Gill, German Witnesses showed themselves “especially courageous,” sheltering and protecting Jewish neighbors. In July 1939 the New York Yiddish daily Der Tog reported about Jehovah’s Witnesses, “There were numerous cases in Danzig where members of the same religious sect have defended Jews against attacks by Nazis, or when these sincere women of the common people intentionally patronized Jewish stores just when Hitlerites picketed those Jewish shops. Only a half a year ago, when like a plague all kinds of food stores began to post the well-known signs ‘Juden unerwünscht’ (Jews not wanted), the same German women regarded it as a sacred duty to provide their Jewish neighbors or mere acquaintances with food or milk without asking anything in return.”

The book Crystal Night: 9-10 November 1938, reports that 300-400 Witness inmates in Buchenwald shared their bread rations with some of the 2,250 Jews brought to the camp in 1938. One Buchenwald survivor told how Witnesses gave their bread to Jewish prisoners and went without food themselves for up to four days.

Bruno Bettelheim observed that the Witnesses “were the only group of prisoners who never abused or mistreated other prisoners” and were “exemplary comrades, helpful, correct, dependable.” The Witnesses were known for sharing their Bible message with other prisoners. “Though the gentile prisoners were forbidden to talk to us,” said a Jewish woman in Lichtenburg, “these women never observed this regulation. They prayed for us as if we belonged to their family, and begged us to hold out.” BBC reporter Björn Hallstrom said that in Buchenwald, Witnesses were punished for eight days because they “had not avoided the forbidden paths between the Jewish blocks.”

Frustrated by the Witnesses’ persistent resistance, the SS regularly announced in Sachsenhausen that prisoners caught talking to Witnesses would receive 25 strokes. Survivor Max Liebster recalls that the SS there isolated the Witnesses and declared their barracks off limits to other prisoners. In Melk, Polish survivor Joseph Kempler says he saw “a camp within a camp” and was told that the SS kept the “purple triangles” in it, dangerous prisoners because they taught people the Bible.

Capitulation, not annihilation, seems to have been the Nazi goal for the Witnesses, despite the fact that Hitler had declared about them in 1934, “This brood will be exterminated!” The Gestapo and SS applied the usual tortur e methods, and in the process hundreds of Witnesses died. But a clue as to the Nazi aim of breaking Witness resolve is found in a remarkable document offered repeatedly to Witness prisoners —a renunciation of their faith and a pledge of loyalty to the fatherland. In exchange for a signature, a Witness could walk away free from camp or prison. Dr. Detlef Garbe, author of an exhaustive volume on the Witnesses, estimates that of the 10,000 Witnesses imprisoned during the Nazi period, there were only a few dozen cases of individuals who signed the so-called Declaration and gained release.

As an intimidation tactic, the SS staged several showcase executions. Heinrich Himmler ordered August Dickmann, a 29-year-old German Witness, shot by firing squad at Sachsenhausen on September 15, 1939. The New York Times named Dickmann as the first conscientious objector of the war to be executed by the Nazis. The entire camp, including Dickmann’s brother Heinrich and about 400 other Witnesses, had to watch. The commandant threatened the Witness inmates with a similar fate unless they signed the Declaration. Not one Witness yielded, but the threat was not carried out.

In Ravensbruck, 400 Witness women refused to sew ammunition pockets. Brutal punishment resulted. Yet fellow prisoner Genevieve de Gaulle, niece of Charles de Gaulle, said of the Witnesses: “Ultimately, these women, who appeared to be so weak and worn out, were stronger than the SS. . . . It was their willpower that no one could beat.”

Eugen Kogon’s famous work The Theory and Practice of Hell states, “One cannot escape the impression that, psychologically speaking, the SS was never quite equal to the challenge offered them by Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

The Witnesses, who saw themselves as part of the universal struggle of good against evil, sought to conquer the scourge of Nazism in accord with the principles of their faith. For them, says James Pellechia, producer of an award-winning documentary on the Witness experience, it was “a battle for the right to worship their God, a battle to love their neighbor, and a battle to tell the truth.”

Hannah, a children’s librarian now living in New Jersey, U.S.A., feels that her chance encounter with the Witnesses helped her to cope with the terrors her family faced before they finally escaped Nazi Germany. “It allowed me to be centered in this situation by having seen and been told not to worry, how there are good people who are there to help,” she says. “It impacted on me my whole life.”

Jolene Chu, a researcher for the Watch Tower Society in New York, specializes in the history of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Nazi era. The writer is seeking to interview survivors who had contact with Witnesses during the Nazi period. Readers can write to Jolene Chu c/o Watch Tower, The Ridgeway, London NW7 1RN.

References & Endnotes

Quoted in The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993), p. 204.

For an excellent discussion of the theory of moral responsibility, powers of agency, and the ‘could not do otherwise’ defense, as related to perpetrator behavior, see chapter 3, ‘Excuses,’ in David H. Jones’, Moral Responsibilitiy in the Holocaust—A Study in the Ethics of Character (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1999), pp. 63-77

Cf. John 17:16. For a fuller discussion of the Witness doctrine of neutrality, see ‘Neutrality,’ in Reasoning From the Scriptures (Brooklyn, NY: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1996), pp. 269-276.

‘Witness’: Greek, martus; Latin, testimonium, according to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, ‘denotes one who can or does aver what he has seen or heard or knows,’ from which derives the word ‘martyr,’ that is, ‘one who bears witness by his death.’

For instance, in 1929 the Witness publication The Golden Age (German edition) stated: ‘National Socialism . . . is a movement that is acting directly in the service of man’s enemy, the Devil.’ Das Goldene Zeitalter, October 15, 1929, p. 316.

Scriptural precedents include the divine denunciations delivered by Hebrew prophets of old such as Isaiah’s rebuke of Assyria and Babylon (Isaiah 36:1-39:8 and 45:1-48:22), Jeremiah’s prophecies again the Philistines, Moab, Ammon, Edomand Elam (Jeremiah 46:1-49:39), Obadiah’s condemnation of Edom (Obadiah 1-16), and Jonah’s message to Nineveh (Jonah 3:1-4:11).

Garbe, Detlef: ‘Die Verfolgung der Zeugen Jehov as,’ p, 17.

King, Christine E., The Nazi State and the New Religions: Five Case Studies in Non-Conformity (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1982), p. 160.

While some churches were known to have supplied Nazi officials with baptism records to prove ‘Aryan’ lineage, and thereby disenfranchise Jews, the Witnesses did not cooperate with Nazi authorities in identifying members with Jewish parentage. Moreover, Jews who had become Jehovah’s Witnesses were commonly sheltered and hidden by congregation members.

The San Francisco Chronicle, November 20, 1938, p. 1, reported that Protestant churches were ordered to eliminate the name ‘Jehovah’ from their churches or they would be burned down as synagogues had been shortly before.

See Watchtower Reprints of the Holocaust—1933-1946, in the collection of the U.S. Holocaust Research Institute, Washington, D.C. The multivolume set contains more than 1,200 photocopied pages of magazines, booklets, books, and tracts printed by the Watch Tower Society.

The 1936 and 1937 the Witnesses distributed hundreds of thousands of leaflets detailing Nazi atrocities. Scholars agree that by this time no other resistance organization, political or religious, remained with the capacity to carry out a similar campaign. See Benz, Wolfgang: ‘Resistance Because of Christian Conviction,’ in Informationen zur politischen Bildung, 2/1994, p. 21, and Imberger, Elke: Widerstand ‘von unten’—Widerstand und Dissens aus den Reihen der Arbeiter bewegung und der Zeugen Jehovas in Lubeck und Schleswig-Holstein 1933-1945, (Neumunster, 1991), p. 345. Of the December 12, 1936, campaign, Imberger writes: ‘In Germany, during the whole National Socialist period, there was no other organization in opposition that conducted a comparable initiative.’

Oliner, Samuel P., ‘Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust,’ in The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined, edited by Michael Berenbaum and Abraham J. Peck (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), p. 686. 1 Fogelman, Eva: ‘The Rescuer Self,’ in The Holocaust and History p. 661.

Fred, you posted a reply to the Editor that was more than 3,000 words long. If it takes you that many words to make your argument, then maybe your argument is not as clear and unassailable as you would like to believe. Regardless of how individual Jews may have responded to the preaching activity of JWs during the Nazi era, this does not escape the fact that Rutherford both wrote and spoke anti-semitic rhetoric, as is clearly evidenced from the material shown above. No amount of quotes from other sources can disprove that. I wouldn’t wish to dissuade you from making further comments on this article, but if you do, please try to limit these to only a few hundred words maximum. If you have more to say, by all means write it elsewhere on the web and provide a link. Otherwise, you give the impression that you are merely trying to hijack this article with your own spurious material that does nothing to refute the points made above.

Dear M.Cedars, Please give Fred a break here! He or his friend(s) have finally come up with those references you kept asking for! You raise good questions. Can you let Hall reply as best he can without judging everything about how he does it? I found the articles and references in them refreshing and reassuring in a way. If one wishes to tear down the world that we know, then surely one ought to help to rebuild that world! That’s always been my feeling about our personal responsibilty to others. Thanks.

I am a Jehovah’s Witness,and I have had the opportunity of reading Cedars’ article on the alleged racist history of Jehovah’s Winesses which, supposedly, has been the subject of a massive attempt at a cover-up by the Organization. Admittedly, the article was well-researched as it provides a somewhat analytical presentation of the Writer’s view about the erstwhile activities of the Witnesses,particularly in relation to the question of racism.

I must quickly state that this article at first glance paints an appearance of objectivity and a dispassionate analysis of the subject of racism. However, it suffers from the fallacy of hasty generalization and this essentially mars any appeal it might have on the mind of the officious bystander who has never heard of the Witnesses. Below are a few of such generalizations:
1. That the Presidents have the final say on the release of any edition of the Organisation’s publications. The Organisation is governed, not by a single individual, but by a Governing Body. As a matter of Organizational procedure, the President merely serves as the Coordinator of the affairs of the Organization. There is the Publications Committee.The President is not necessarily a member of this Committee.He is not a President in the conventional sense of the word.He cannot make a unilateral decision on what goes out to the printer and what does not.
2. The assertion as to the putative alcoholism of Brother J.F. was unsupported by any piece of evidence and is, at best, to be regarded as lacking in any concrete basis.
3. That there is a deliberate attempt by the Organization to sweep under the carpet a supposed history of racism tends to flagrantly disregard the fact of the urgency and the criticalness of the times, as enunciated by the Witnesses through their global preaching work. There is a heightened sense of urgency as even the Writer would acknowlege the fact that we are indeed living in the last days foretold by Bible prophecy.
I am bound by the 100-words limit. As a Nigerian, given to so many words, it’s an expectation hard to fulfill on my part(that’s on a lighter note). But I would just like to add this to the whole discourse: The fact that the Witnesses have in times past admitted to engaging in certain unscriptural practises should be a factor in their favor.Furthermore, it is impracticable to expect the Witnesses to allude to alleged racist tendencies(that’s if there was any)in the face of the contemporary global stance relating to the stamping out of racism from every facet of the human existence.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are still being guided by the light of the truth which keeps getting brighter and brighter until the day is firmly established.They are not perfect people.It is only when God ushers in His righteous new Government that perfection, which has so brazenly eluded the human race since the fall of man in Eden,that we can all achieve the original purpose of God for mankind.

But to denounce the Witnesses as being not of God on the basis of Cedars’ article is much the same as giving a dog a bad name with the sole intent of hanging it.

Thank you for taking the time to read my article. Whilst I appreciate your kind words, it’s with regret that I note that much of what you say reflects a certain lack of knowledge of our organization’s history.

As for your points:

1. Prior to the presidency of Nathan Knorr, there was no “Governing Body” – there was merely the office of president with complete control over everything, particularly during the era of Russell and Rutherford which is the focus of this article. The exact beginnings of the Governing Body are deliberately obscured in the Society’s literature, but it only appeared in any tangible form following Rutherford’s death, and assumed its current scope and authority during the 1970s.
2. I would refer you to subsequent comments (above) made about Rutherford’s alcoholism in general literature. I would encourage you to do more research on that particular topic using external sources that are less likely to reflect bias on the part of the Society (after all, the Society denies any former racism in its current literature, so you can be sure they will take a similar approach to hiding Rutherford’s alcoholism). One avenue of research I can recommend is Rutherford’s court case against Olin Moyle. You may find that following an objective appraisal of the facts, your high esteem for Rutherford becomes rather tainted.
3. The supposed “urgency” of the times is no reason not to be candid about the organization’s lurid past. The Society has summoned the candor to admit lesser “indiscretions” such as celebrating birthdays and using the cross. I fail to understand your logic that the “urgency of the times” frees the Society from its responsibility to be honest about its past. Certainly, if the society had been honest about its past, it would mitigate the “shock factor” among those who are stumbled by articles such as the one above when they emerge.

Finally, I would urge you to go back to your bible, and look up all the scriptures often used by the Society to convey the idea of “the light getting brighter” including Proverbs 4:18. If you read these scriptures carefully, including the context, you will realize that none of them support the idea that Jehovah, the “God of Truth”, would deliberately convey false information to his servants by means of his Holy Spirit as a “makeweight” until true information is revealed at a later stage. To suggest otherwise is frankly blasphemous. -Deu 18:20-22

If God wants his servants to know something, he tells them exactly what they need to know, and never needs to change or go back on his word at a later date. I would ask you to meditate on that thought before replying.

I am utterly perplexed by one particular assertion in your reply to the article about racism in the history of the Watchtower. Where is the evidence that the writer would acknowledge that we are living in ‘The Last Days’? I know nothing of Cedars, save what he has written in his article and subsequent comments. In those pieces he makes no such acknowledgement. Where did you pick up this idea?
The Apocalypse, Parousia and the rest never arrived in the first century AD and 2000 years have passed and still nothing has happened. The JW false predictions about 1914, 1925, 1941 and 1975 are but afew little incidents in a long, long story. The imminent End is a constant in the history of Christendom. Here are but a few examples;Christopher Columbus marked 1658 as the year, after exhaustive Biblical study, William Miller was convinced that 1844 would be the year, Elspeth Buchan of Glasgow founded a sect which focuesd on 1835. Like the JWs, of course, they were all wrong. Even if there were any truth in the current JW promoted End Times myth, and even if Cedars acknowledged and believed it, that is still no reason for trying to whitewash the ugly anti Semitic and racist history of the WBTS. It is in the WBTS’ interest to promote this ‘urgency in the times of the End’ atmosphere. It is a tool whereby to motivate the efforts of their global team of unpaid mag. distributors like yourself, and thus, to increase the value of their publishing and property empire.

Funny how every JW I know uses that “the light has to get brighter” line when they are presented with something they know discredits the society. Telling black people that their skin would turn white in the new world obviously was not a message given by god or christ. Standing on that alone I know better. Melanin is the reason Africans can take the sun and were brought over as slaves in the first place. The southern whites could not take the sun and needed them to tend to the fields for their own survival and wealth. Common sense is all you need sometimes. But programming does not allow room for common sense. The society must tell you what to think. I remember looking at pictures of Moses in the Book of Bible Stories and wondering why he had blonde hair and blue eyes but was passed off as an Egyptian who were colored on the walls of the pyramids. Clearly back then and even still, just more subtly done, whites are presented as superior subconsciously through the literature.

Comment
Racism may not be in the publications,but it is still there in practice…one should come to Africa to see it.
I served in a Bethel in an African country for many years and saw discrimination first hand. ..Africans are generally docile and respectful and therefore very easy to discriminate against under the guise of ‘theocratic order. ‘
In bethel,there is clear preferential treatment and favoritism against local bethelites…

All the operations are under brothers from the West and local branch committee members are simply puppets although they are meant to have an equal say.
The majority of cirquit,district,zone overseers have been from the West
The Gilead School has admitted very few students from Africa,even though the publisher to population ratios in many African countries is impressive.
All this gives the impression that Africans are not capable..
In fact some of us are pleased that Gilead will not be sending missionaries, they’ve outlived their usefulness and from personal experience in interacting with them, some of them have no real love or respect for the local brothers and act like Masters over our faith.
We’re fully aware that developing countries are financialy poor and our contributions are like the needy ‘ widow’s two coins of little value’…perhaps that’s the justification for the poor treatment.

One could argue that these were imperfect men and also that the organization has corrected its position . However , in the Proclaimers Book I was surprised this was not mentioned along with how Christmas used to be celebrated at Bethel . I know for many black witnesses the image of all the Bible characters being white is a big concern . The white image of Jesus comes from a painting by Michaelangelo . Again thanks for the research . Racism still exists in this country and clearly some of Jehovahs people still struggle with it Africana’s statement is powerful. I see the same thing in the South with African brothers at times. White brothers are automaticaly given tasks to do whereas black brothers have to beg fight and ask to be used in some intances . Even some black elders in the south have the perception that white is superior. Some white elders feel they MUST be in charge .

Yes, the racism in the Jehovah’s Witnesses, past and present, is deplorable, as is racism anywhere. It pales, however, into insignificance by the side of the broader beliefs of the Witnesses. JWs are prejudiced, to the extent of wishing an imminent execution on the greater part of the human race. And why, according to Jehovah’s Witnesses, do we, humans of every colour, race and creed, save the Jehovah;s WItnesses, deserve the death penalty? For the simple reason we do not accept the ‘Faithful and Discreet Slave’ as the controllers of our every thought and action. We do not attend the Kingdom Hall and spend our money on WBTS literature and we do not spend our every spare moment distributing it door to door whilst parroting the latest TRUTH as delivered by a bunch of old men in Brooklyn. We do not thus contribute to the aggrandizement of a New York based publishing and property corporation. For this we are branded as the children of Satan, and are condemned. The JW cult is an obscenity. Whatever your colour, if you belong to the Jehovah’s Witnesses you are contributing to the work of an obscenely prejudiced and anti human organisation. By all means fight racism, but please, leave that foul old WBTS first.

Have faith it will be corrected . White supremacy has infected this entire planet . Sadly , some white witnesses refuse to give it up and the benefits it affords them . Those who continue to act this way will be corrected .

I am a Witness . I am 41 raised in the truth and in the South. I am not shocked to read this .I have studied racism/white supremacy after the Civil War. It is ingrained in the mindset of the United States. Jim Crow was in effect until 1960.One is naive to think it did not affect witnesses . If you read books such as The White Arichtects of Black Education these ideas about blacks and their skin were ingrained into the mindset. This past however is never discussed and should be denounced . Sadly , racist attitudes are still a problem in the organization . Again , when one studies history its no surprise as Paul was confronted on issues regarding race . I would like for the arthur to please tell me how to contact him to get these articles .

If we are going to denounce the Watchtower for their past , that is fine . But we also should realize they have adjusted their position to the proper degree. That should be recognized also. Racism/white supremacy still lingers . I see it in white brothers . Its a struggle for some still . Again , as a history student and witness I thank Cedar for the research .

Hello Khalidx – thanks for visiting this website. I’m glad you have found this article helpful. I believe I’ve stressed from the beginning that the Society’s current publications promote equality among races. At the very beginning I said, “Watchtower publications speak of all races being equal before a God who is ‘not partial’.”

However, I feel it is right and proper to hold the organization to the standards that they themselves aspire to. We are not talking about a Society that simply promotes study of the bible. We are talking about one that claims to have been chosen in 1919 as God’s approved channel of communication with mankind.

The fact that racist material was being published in the literature both before, during and after Christ’s inspection casts serious doubt as to their insistence on divine approval, and this is why they keep this aspect of their history covered up rather than doing the humble thing and acknowledging it.

The fact that they go one step further and criticize other religions over their racist history is even more reprehensible.

I agree. But the conditions in this country particular with race cannot be blamed on the society . Jim Crow existed from 1877 -1960 . Racial segregation was the law of the land. I think attitudes still exist. The view in this country of Africans being inferior is the result of this country teaching that and referring to Africa as the ” dark continent” . What was said in the past is wrong buy I think what is in print needs to be considered. Many religons still practice racial segregation in 2012. I know a elder who was racist and he was removed from his position. If racism is practiced by any Witness , the blame needs to go on that witness because the slave has been clear it is not acceptable. Why this past is not openly discussed can be questioned but I would temper it on the enviroment of this country and the attitude today. The organization’s position today should invalidate what was said 100 years ago. When you look at some in this world , they still hold the same racist/ white supremacist views in 2012. I am glad the Watchtower does not. racism is part of the fabric of this system and no man will remove it totally. The election of a man of color proves that we are not in a post racial society. Since his election , we have seen more racism particully from white people . Sadly , I have seen some white friends affected by it .

Khalidx – I commend your interest in the history of racism from a secular / civil rights perspective, but you seem to keep missing the point I am trying to make with this article. Regardless of whether Watchtower literature is NOW free from racist sentiment, there should have been NO racism in the literature of an organization chosen by Christ to represent him in 1919 in the first place. The fact that the racism disappeared from our literature at around the same time as the civil rights movement in America, and not a moment sooner, testifies to the fact the Society is no better or worse than any other religious organization when it comes to its record of racial equality. The fact that it can criticize other faiths over their racial record whilst ignoring its own history is even worse. I’m wondering how I can phrase this differently so that you can view this in the proper perspective?

ok now you sound a bit arrogant in your exasperation. Actually, why wouldn’t an imperfect people chosen by Jehovah have some bad and wrong traits; the Jewish people and the early Christians did too did too!?

Stacy, you are commenting on a reply to Khladix which, as you will note below, he accepts as having validity. If you think that a people “chosen by Jehovah” are allowed to have “some bad and wrong traits” including (1) making racist statements in their literature, and (2) covering up those statements and criticizing other religions for THEIR record on racism, then I would ask: what makes Jehovah’s Witnesses so special? They are apparently able to do anything wrong and still get away with it (in your eyes), so why can’t some other religious movement with “some bad and wrong traits” also lay claim to being God’s chosen organization?

My concern is historical accuracy which I struggle with as a Witness . The latest magazine has Moses looking white . Moses was raised in Pharoahs house . The people of Egypt were not white and the myth of a white Egypt is a what white racists teach . After Egypt was ruled by other nations they intermarried by Egyptians of old were not white . Egyptologist Cheikh Anta Diop invented a method for determining the level of melanin in the skin of human beings. When conducted on Egyptian mummies in the Museum of Man in Paris, this test indicated these remains were of Black people. I just wish as a black witness the magaines were historically accurate. I thank Cedars for this information and I am glad the slave
has denounced racism . However , the past racism is not something openly discussed .

Stacy, neither Fred nor the Jehovah’s Witnesses deserve any sort of a break. They need, instead, to be broken. Their claims of being God’s exclusive organisation are utterly baseless, and, as Cedars says, if they were indeed God’s sole earthly mouthpiece, they would represent some sempiternal ‘Truths’, not merely the morals and attitudes of the era in which they have operated. The JW outfit’s ‘achievements’ are uniformly negative. In addition to their serial duff prophecies about Armageddon, they have a record of paedophile protection that leaves the Roman Catholics in the shade; they have left a trail of broken families through their shunning edicts and thousands have died unnecessarily through their blood transfusion idiocy and flip flops. Then there is the mental distress and depression from living under the cloud of this imminent Armageddon nonsense;Armageddon! the main, almost exclusive theme of this obscene global publishing and property corporation. There is a vast army now of ex JWs and we are all determined to allow this disgusting WBTS cult no ‘break’ whatever until it is wiped from the face of the earth.

“…ex JWs and we are all determined to allow this disgusting WBTS cult no ‘break’ whatever until it is wiped from the face of the earth.”-Rowland Nelkin
What you just said here sounds like when Hitler said he was going to wipe this brood from the earth (something like that). Scary, I think I’ll just go lock my door now…
ps. Maybe something bad happened to you with jws. I’m sorry. I mean it; I know how it feels to be let down in a big way.:)

Rowland, thank you for encouraging words for Ex-JWs especially in developing words where access to information is limited but I can rejoice readinng Jeremiah 51:14 WHICH READS “Jehovah of armies has sworn by his own soul, ‘I will fill you [WTS] with men, like the locusts, and they [EX-JWs] will certainly sing forth over you a shout.’

I have failed to understand how misled JWs, our brothers and sister, fail to understand this, from thier own BIBLE, “And Jehovah went on to say to me: “Falsehood is what the prophets are prophesying in my name. I have not sent them, nor have I commanded them or spoken to them. A false vision and divination and a valueless thing and the trickiness of their heart they are speaking prophetically to ​YOU​ people.” Jeremiah 14:14.
THE VAST ARMY OF EX-JWs IS WINNING THE BATTLE EVEN IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. WE ARE USING MEANS WE CAN AFFORD EFFICIENTLY!!!

Stacy, you have misunderstood my post completely. I do not wish extermination, exile or slavery on Jehovah’s Witnesses, or indeed on anybody else. I simply wish the JW organisation to fold so that it will cease to spread its poison. That is in complete contrast to Hitler who wished to exterminate the Jews, and in complete contrast to the Jehovah’s Witnesses who look forward to the day when their fantasy Jehovah exterminates the entire human race save a few million Kingdom Hall attenders and Watchtower and Awake distributors. As to things I am for? Good company, dancing, music making, cross country skiing, scientific enquiry, good books on all subjects, fresh fruit……that is but a small selection of joys to be had from this wonderful world through which we are passing, the world that Jehovah’s Witnesses despise and dismiss as Satanic and to whose destruction they are vainly, stupidly and cruelly dedicated.

‘Maybe something bad happened to you with jws. I’m sorry. I mean it;’ said Stacy. Does this mean that you, Stacy, are a JW? If not, why apologise for the horrors of someone else’s outfit? Yes, something bad did happen to me at the Jws. I was a JW. It is an intrinsically bad thing to be. You are fed a load of ever changing lies by a bunch of self righteous, self serving old farts in Brooklyn; you are taught to despise every aspect of this wonderful world which is beyond the control of the Brooklyn bosses. All information that does not emanate from WBTS presses, JWs are taught to view with suspicion. ANd I got off lightly. I suffered no sexual abuse; only my mother belonged and I was never baptised so I was never shunned, and I was never confronted with the horrors of the blood transfusion dilemma. Further I did continue into higher education,. something that JWs frown on. Even so, those few childhood years being fed Armageddon horrors and idiocy cast a black cloud over what would otherwise have been a blissful era. Stacy, can you say anything positive about the Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Oh yes; there was one positive aspect of being raised as a JW. Having experienced the mindset of a textual (Biblical or Koranic) fundamentalist, I can recognise it in others and am aware of its dangers. The attitudes of the 9/11 bombers, their ‘God given’ certainty was, to me, redolent of childhood. Al Quaedr carry out their own executions. JWS have appointed their fantasy Jehovah as hitman.

Rowland what is the difference between “until it is wiped from the face of the earth.” and ” I do not wish extermination, exile or slavery on Jehovah’s Witnesses, or indeed on anybody else. I simply wish the JW organisation to fold so that it will cease to spread its poison.” Do members of the organization have a voice? I think you should respect people’s right to choose their own faith. The Witnesses did not work out for you. Some could view your words as spreading poison. Your words sound very toxic and you sound very bitter . Wish you peace .

Of course, Khalidx, we should be free to choose our own ideology or faith. If, however, the choice is of of something intrinsically mendacious or toxic, the world should be warned about it. It would be better, of course, that lying or poisonous institutions, like the WBTS, did not exist at all. I hope, Khalidx, you can see the distinction between the organisation and its poisonous ideology, and the individuals who have been beguiled by its message. JWs have a voice. They have c. 7 million worldwide voices, all spreading the identical Brooklyn invented and distributed message. They are unpaid mag. distributors for a global publishing and property corporation. They have been sadly duped. Their message is, like that of the Nazis, a murderous, cruel and obscene one. I would not seek to ban the JWs from knocking on doors and spreading the fiction about Jehovah’s planned imminent mass murder of the bulk of the human race. I would rather seek to release these 7 million fellow humans from the bondage of the WBTS. JWs are taught to imagine they are not part of the world, that they are not members of a church, a religion or of CHristendom. They are all of these. JWdom is simply a very nasty little church, religion, piece of Christendom and of the world. Thank you for your wishes of peace, Khalidx. I will feel much more at peace when the lying JW organisation that overshadowed my childhood has ceased to exist, and all its members are free of its shackles.

I feel the same way as I do about the comments made in the Societys publications. They are wrong. However , we have to realize it all begins with the view the blacks are inferior. That attitude is what allowed the slave trade to continue . It is what allowed Convict Leasing and Jim Crow to exist . Slavery in this country ended in the 1960s. Read the book or watch the PBS video based on the book , Slavery by Another Name .Your timeline on the Societys comments occur during 1900 -1952. They mentioned a Popes comments in 1873. Read the book The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865-1954 . The Civil War and after it ended is so important. In 1900 Charles Carroll wrote the book entitled The Negro a Beast or In the Image of God. Carroll concludes in the book that the White race was made in the image and likeness of God and that Adam gave birth to the White race only, while Negros are pre-Adamite beasts and could not possibly have been made in God’s image and likeness because they are beastlike, immoral and ugly. Carroll claimed that the pre-Adamite races such as blacks did not have souls. Carroll believed that race mixing was an insult to God and spoiled God’s racial plan of creation. This book was published by the St. Louis, Mo., American book and Bible house

So the attitudes of the Pope and even the Watchtower are not surprising when you look at how extensive this attitude was . Your last article you pointed out was 1952. Jim Crow ended in this country in 1965. The society is not perfect and again has denounced racism . Now if the Watchtower is Gods organization they should know better, right? If they were perfect , yes . But even perfect people can fail. I disagree. David should have known better , Solomon , the Nation of Israel , Peter should have known better . I think even in Jesus time attitudes had to be corrected on matters and the same is true of the Watchtower. You may disagree . I respect that. Would I like to see the Society acknowledge this ? Yes. I think everyone no matter your faith will struggle with racism . 2011 the slave is still discussing it and so is the Catholic Church ( Google Black Catholics face cold shoulder in church )

My conclusion is how wicked Satan is for creating such a tactic to divide us all .

Khalidx – you have offered no defence of the JW organisation; merely remarked that it has become, latterly, and at any rate officially if not in practice, a non racist organisation. JWdom, however, is as pernicious an organisation as any racist govt. past or present. It condemns fellow humans, not on account of race, but on account of non subscription to its Brooklyn bosses every diktat. As a JW, Khalidx, you are ordered to believe, on pain of Armageddon execution, that all of us non JWs (the bulk of the world’s population, of any and every race) deserve the death penalty. And why? Because we do not believe or follow every doctrine, every diktat, of a bunch of self appointed old men in Brooklyn who have made the utterly outrageous and unevidenced claim, that, as ‘The Faithful and Discreet Slave’, they are Jehovah God’s exclusive earthly mouthpiece. How, Khalidx, can you presume to wish me ‘peace’ when you are obliged, by order of your Brooklyn bosses, to look forward to the day of Armageddon when your God murders me?

I’ve NEVER read the bible to read that JWs will all survive and all the rest of humanity will live! Only God can really know the secret person of the heart, and there are good hearted people everywhere. And creepy people in among real Christians, as Jude (it’s a really short book in the bible) points out clearly. We have to try to protect ourselves and others from them but it’s not always possible! God tells us to take care of the fatherless boy and the widow and God knows how brave we have been in our lives. I notice in Revelation that cowards are among those thrown into the fire. I never thought it was that simple to figure-and it’s not our job to decide who will be destroyed. But the bible itself has good teachings and guidelines in it. If I ever become sure that the JW organisation is displeasing Jehovah and he is removing his spirit-which has happened to the Jewish people repeatedly in the bible- well, I will try to remain as loyal to God as I can, with or without the jw org. I am a thinking person, always rying to make adjustments…

http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/organization.php I suggest, Khalidx, you study JW doctrine more closely. Whatever the Bible does or does not say, the WBTS reminds its followers time and time again that the only route to salvation is via the Faithful and Discreet Slave. Maybe it’s time you junked this grubby little JW outfit that has only ever offered duff prophecy, needless deaths and broken families. As a thinking person, Khalidx, you deserve better than to be an unpaid skivvy for a cruel little cult.

When you state ” junked this grubby little JW outfit that has only ever offered duff prophecy, needless deaths and broken families.” , it basically tells me your site is filled with the same hatred and venom you display. ( John 8: 44)

No Khalidx. You have misunderstood my message completely. I have no ‘site’ and I do not hate Jehovah’s Witnesses any more than I hated their Adventist cousins who died at the hands of the FBI (remember Waco?). I feel sorry for any decent human beings, and I have fond memories of many decent people from the Kingdom Hall of my childhood.

I detest, however, any self serving cult leaders who minister to their own sense of importance and righteousness and use all the methods of cult mind control to aggrandize their own position. I look forward to the day, and believe it is not far off, when the WBTS can no longer operate. The outfit is already selling off its Brooklyn property in preparation for the sexual abuse fines which are almost certainly coming its way .The Internet is a means whereby current JWs can discover that JW TRUTH is a great pack of ever changing lies.

Regarding hatred, what could be more inspiring of hate than a doctrine which encourages (or rather demands , on pain of execution) its followers to look forward to the day of Armageddon when its hideous Jehovah creation murders the greater part of humanity for the crime of non Kingdom Hall attendance and non WT mag. distribution.

I am not surprised, Khalidx, that you have offered no substantial defence of the WBTS; the outfit is utterly indefensible. I wish you well and hope that you soon escape from its clutches.

Stacy, you misunderstand my position. I am not insulting the ordinary JWs. They are the victims of the cult mind control techniques of the Publishing and Property Corporation known as the WBTS. Their function is purely to augment the wealth of the Brooklyn based outfit; they are thus kept in thrall and feel obliged, on pain of execution, to offer ever more unpaid labour, in the form of mag. distribution and door knocking. I wish the ordinary JWs well and wish them freedom from the clutches of the malevolent WBTS.

Yes, Khalidx, every era in this beautiful world is exciting; no one knows what the future holds. The Bible, of course, is no guide whatever. For the last 2000 years there have been groups referring to the Bible and pointing to an imminent Day of Judgement. JWs are one of many. Like all the others they are mistaken. Rapture, Parousia, Millennium, Judgement Seat and Armageddon are all the stuff of gruesome fairy stories. Best wishes.

I have to stand before the judgement seat just like everyone else. I hope to be their with you and every other human . Jehovah God is the final judge , not me . I am imperfect and have struggled. I have chosen to remain a Witness of my own choice. You have not. It is not my position to say you will be destroyed .

I do not wish to control you Stacy. I wish you freedom from the malevolent control of the WBTS. As to the Bible; I suggest you study it independently of your JW controllers. At JW Bible studies, after all, you do not study the Bible; you study a WBTS publication.

Where Bible study would take you, Stacy, I have no idea, beyond the fact that it would certainly lead you to the Kingdom Hall exit. For me Bible study led to atheism. Wherever it leads you, Stacy, I wish you freedom, enlightenment and happiness, none of which is remotely possible whilst under the tight control of your Brooklyn masters.

The bible study took me to Genesis 6:2 and 2 Sam 12:12 and asked myself what kind of god is JEHOVAH, the god of the WTS. I got sick when I read HOSEA 13:16 which reads “Sa·mari·a will be held guilty, for she is actually rebellious against her God [JEHOVAH]. By the sword they will fall. Their own children will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women themselves will be ripped up.”
Rowland, ask Stacy to read the verse from his/her Bible and, MAYBE, he/she will understand where a critical Bible study will lead him/her.
From ages, people killed others in the name of God and I do not believe the WTS would be different sticking on the IDEOLOGY of “KILLERS IN THE NAME OF GOD” Read again Hosea 13:16 and tell me if I am wrong!!!.

Why stay in an outfit which ‘encroaches on Christian freedom?’. Why remain in an outfit which is nothing more than a publishing and property corporation which has invented a Jehovah monster as a disciplinary device in order to increase its capital value? The knocking on closed doors palaver, apparently, recruits only one new JW every 40 years. Like the slave owners in the old American South the cult is now trying to breed from existing stock rather than capture new victims; hence the strict shunning policy. The ex JW pages tell of countless JW children who stay in the outfit despite realising its doctrine is nothing but bullcrap, purely so they will not be shunned by their families. I have had personal messages on Facebook asking how to deal with this agonising situation. The JW numbers are now barely keeping pace with the increase in global population; and that is counting the inactive non believing heads. As with all dictatorships, the internet is the enemy of the WBTS. With the click of a mouse anyone can discover that JW TRUTH is a malevolent pack of lies. I recommend that any remaining JWs jump from the Watchtower ship before it finally sinks for good. The longer you stay away from ‘the world’ (i.e. the beautiful part of the world as opposed to the sordid little corner of the world occupied by the WBTS) the more difficult it will be to integrate when you can no longer take refuge in the Kingdom Hall and all its silly pictures of grinning people patting pet lions in eternal sunshine.

It may not be your position, Khalidx (my imminent destruction), but it is the position of your Brooklyn bosses. Salvation, they say, can only be achieved via the ‘Faithful and Discreet Slave’. ANd anyway, this imminent Judgement Day nonsense litters the history of latterday Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Please remember it is a monstrous fiction.

Not only did Khalidz and Stacy misunderstand my posts; they took them as personal insults, when my anger was directed at their Brooklyn controllers. Neither offered any defence of the JW cult. Neither could explain why the notion of glorying in the execution of most of humanity was a good thing; neither could justify an outfit whose only record thus far is of broken families through shunning, serial duff prophecy, deaths through the ever changing blood transfusion doctrine and nightmares about this imminent Armageddon nonsense. All that, and the racism which is at the head of this thread. Well, Stacy and Khalidx; I have met neither of you, but believe you deserve better; you are worth more than to be the skivvies for a malign organisation. Does either of you have anything to say in defence of your cult? What has it ever offered that is remotely worthy or useful?

Personal insults? You’re adorable and quite comical . Like I said we shall see what the future holds. I wish you peace. You cannot convince me and vice versa. Again , I thank Cedars for the historical lesson. It validates to me that white supremacy has infected this entire planet and this world is incorrigible.

As an active JW who only recently began to study the history of our organization, I feel compelled to make some comments. Rowland has his views, and his language is harsh based on his experience which I acknowledge as being his own. My experience has generally been favorable and I have been one of JW’s my entire life.

That ebing said, I believe this article is quite telling. khaldx, you are 100% correct that the writings of the WT are simply parallel to the time period they were written in. That I believe is very easy to agree with you on. However, since our organization CLEARLY teaches that you MUST BE one of JW’s in order to survive the current system of things, and that they ALONE have been chosen by Christ in 1919 and appointed as his faithful and discreet slave, that these articles written in, around, and after that time period mount consideration.

What it means, is that the WT is subject to error and editorial just like any other magazine. This thought initially gave me a headache, as I have always looked to the pages of the WT for spiritual guidance. Yet when considering the MANY erroneous teachings throughout history, it cannot be ignored that many times, they are just plain wrong.

Now here is the issue. If one disagrees with a stated teaching as it is handed down through the WT, one is subject to being disfellowshipped if they insist on their opinion. This in my opinion is encroachment on Christian freedom. Not until recently did I even think about how much control is softly but firmly held over the individual Christian by doing such a thing.

Now this begs the question, if Jehovah is not responsible for these terrible comments made in the WT, who was? Well the white men that wrote them no doubt. Never was this information true or “light” so that it could be brighter. It was false and those who wrote it taught falsely. To suggest otherwise is to not be intellectually honest with ourselves.

This doesn’t give me a headache anymore because I realize that these are just people like all of us. The issue I take, is with them “seating themselves in the seat of Moses”. How many articles since our study version of the WT has come out, have been about listening to the slave, being judged by your obedience to the slave, and the correlation between Moses and the GB being discussed usually in the shadow of a warning regarding Korah. My goodness, you simply cannot get away from it.

Since you are both on the internet, you no doubt are aware of the new teaching regarding the identity of the FDS. What do you think about it? Is it a more humble stance, or does it consolidate power in the hands of the few?

This exchange with JWs is typical of many I have had online. I have yet to read a JW coming up with a credible defence of their cult, never mind a justification for the absurd label of TRUTH that the Brooklyn bosses slap on their torrents of cruel idiocy. The reason? The Theocratic Ministry School primes its students to prey purely on the lost, lonely and vulnerable; those who might be susceptible to the baseless Paradise Earth myth. Faced with those of us who know the ways and history of the cult, JWs have nothing to say.

So, JWs, Stacy, Khaldix and Fred; ProblemAddict has reminded you that your Brooklyn bosses tell you that Jehovah will soon murder the greater part of humanity for our refusal to attend the Kingdom Hall and distribute WBTS mags. (The only way toi escape execution is to follow the diktats of the F and D Slave).

I do not wish any of you JWs any harm; I wish you freedom and a fulfilling life. You, however, believe I should face execution. How can you wish me peace in with any sincerity? You describe my attitude as harsh. It is yours which looks forward to mass murder; a holocaust n a global scale that would leave Hitler’s little effort seem puny in comparision.

Perhaps you JWs can tell me why you look forward to this orgy of mass murder?

The comments of Fred Hall, Stacy, Problemaddict and Khalidx should be spread abroad. They would serve as a warning to anyone who is momentarily beguiled by the Paradise Earth bilge during a doorstep JW sermon. Their inability to defend the outfit which has so cruelly imprisoned them will help to steer others away from JW poison.

They have all acknowledged the racism within the cult and have failed to provide any reason for joining a group which splits families, murders its members and their children through its mad and ever changing blood policy and protects families by reference to a verse in Deuteronomy.

OK, Khalidx has repeatedly come up with ‘We Shall see what the futrue holds’. Poor chpa. He actually believes in this Armageddon bullshit. He believes it because it comes from his dictatorial leaders who have a track record of a whole string of duff Armageddon prophecies (1914, 1925, 1941, 1975 and the one I was raised under ‘before the death of the 1914 generation’ are some.)

The authority of the JW bosses, who control their members’ minds and lives, is based on their claim to being God’s exclusive earthly rep. or ‘The Faithful and Discreet Slave’ as mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 24. I have asked countless JWs to provide evidence to support this claim. None has done so; there is no evidence. Yet WBTS publications remind their readers that salvation (i.e not being murdered by God at Armageddon) is available only via the Faithful and Discreet Slave.

COme on guys-Fred, Stacy, Problemaddict and Khalidx, keep sending in your pathetic posts. Let anyone who reads them recognise the depths to which this cult has dragged you and rotted your minds and spirit.

Do remember, Fred, Stacy, Khalidx and Problemaddict, that when the Tower falls, as fall it soon will, there is plenty of support available for ex JWs trying to adjust to life in this beautiful world. Yes, the world, that place the miserymaking JW controllers are dinning into your heads is Satanic and doomed.

The internet is eroding the power of your cult bosses. At the click of a mouse the serial lies, cruelty and deception of JWdom can be read. Read about the Candace Conti case. The Watchtower has been convicted and fined millions of dollars for protecting a paedophile; there are masses of other similar cases awaiting justice. The two witness rule is costing your bosses a fortune; hence the property sales.

‘This world is incorrigible’, eh, Khalidx? It is the only one we know about. The New World Paradise Earth nonsense peddled by the WBTS is a cruel illusion. Find a fulfilling part of the world to inhabit; you are worth more than to waste away as an unpaid mag. distributor for an outfit that cares nothing about you. Whatever the future holds it does not hold the JW Armageddon.

Khalidx – you keep repeating ‘ We shall see what the future holds’. This suggest you have the Armageddon trump card up your sleeve. On what is this Armageddon prediction based? The say so of a bunch of old men in Brooklyn who claim that their little gang is ‘The Faithful and Discreet Slave’ as referred to by Jesus in Matt. 24, and was confirmed as such by Jesus during an earthly inspection in 1919. I have asked countless JWs for evidence to back up this ‘Gov. Bod. = F + D Slave’ claim. None has supplied any. The reason is simple. There is no evidence. The claim is baseless. The WBTS Gov. Bod. is nothing bu a bunch of self appointed, self righteous, control freak old farts, whose principal aim is to remain in power and to augment the capital value of their property and publishing corporation. Yes, I detest the WBTS. ANd don’t any of you JWs dare to call me harsh or judgemental. So long as you remain JWs you are ordered, on pain of execution, to believe that I deserve the death Penalty, and you look forward to the day of Armageddon when God murders me along with the bulk of humanity. Please, JWs, face up to the reality and horror of the position you are in. Remember, also that there is plenty of help available for you when you come to your senses and escape the malign control of your JW bosses. Remeber, also, that soon you may have no choice. With the amount of lawsuits coming its way, the penalties could eat into the entire WBTS estate.

Atheists, Khalidx, are the fastest growing group in the UK and USA. OK, Islam is making a comeback too. What do JWs do except bash the whole world outside their grubby little cult, label us all as Satanic and worldly and look forward to the day when Jehovah murders us all. JWdom is exclusively about bashing the rest of the world and looking forward to its destruction. I note you have nothing to say in defence of your cult and its stinking and murderous record. Re. the future; how many false Armageddon dates have the old gits at the top of your org. come up with? When I was a JW, I actually believed that Armageddon was due before the end of the 20th century. I really ‘knew’ what the future held because I was ‘In the Truth’. Stop imagining that JW doctrine is anything more than an ever changing pack of lies and that you, as a JW, are anything more than an unpaid mag. pusher for a corrupt publishing and property corporation. Hopefully we are living in the times of the End; the End of the WBTS, Kingdom Halls, Broklyn ‘Popes’ and the entire Jehovah’s Witness empire.

Khalidx, your knowledge of atheists is pathetic. I have never met an atheist who denies, absolutely, the possibility that a God figure might exist. Even Richard Dawkins has a chapter in ‘The God Delusion’ entitled ‘Why there is almost certainly no God’. That is an acknowledgemnet that mankind is not omniscient. Yes, a God type phenomenoen might exist somehow, somewhere. It has not, however, manifested itself to the human race. Such Gods as man has thus far described are clearly works of the imagination. SOme are benign; most are ridiculous. The Jehovah creation of the JWs is not only ridiculous; it is utterly obscene. Why do you worship the invention of Pastor Russell, as embroidered by Rutherford (both racists as pointed out in the article that begun this thread) and augmented by subsequent WBTS bosses?

This god (Jehovah) was even ridiculous from the very beginning of its creation by people like Moses. Exodus 32:27 says “He [Moses] now said to them: “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel[ANOINTED JWs] has said, ‘Put each one of YOU his sword on his side. Pass through and return from gate to gate in the camp and kill each one his brother and each one his fellow and each one his intimate acquaintance”. Look! What Russel, the father of JWs did, is to make this “Creation of human imagination” MORE RIDICULOUS and its followers (JWs) are becoming MORE and MORE RIDICULOUS!!!!. Only Armaggedon (creation of imagination, too) is the only one way to stop the JWs’s RIDICULOUS JOURNEY TOWARDS THEIR SAD END… A RIDICULOUS gOD IS MAKING RIDICULOUS PEOPLE, THAT’S NATURAL. Do not arhue with the fool, people will not make the difference…

It is notable that not one of the JWs on here has been able to tell us of the benefits of WBTS membership and Kingdom Hall attendance. That is hardly surprising; there are none. Even the main theme that started this thread, the racism of the founders, has been conceded. Believing JWs have even pointed out that racism is still extant in practice, if not in the mags. The JW failed apologists have probably scurried back now to the bogus security of the Kingdom Hall where they can make the effort to try and imagine that the torrents of Brooklyn bilge really are ‘Bible Truths’ and that looking forward to a mega holocaust makes one a wise, enlightened and worthy person.

Atheism is not a faith. Do you need ‘faith’, Khalidx, in order to disbelieve in Allah of the Muslims or the Trinitarian God of the Pope? You, Khalidx, disbelieve in most of the world’s Gods. I simply happen not to believe in one more God than you, namely, the Jehovah monster, the Russell?Rutherford/Gov Bod invention.

I am not an atheist. I am an active JW such as yourself. I realize its funner to go back and forth with someone pushing your buttons, and that holds strong opinions, but I would really appreciate it if you would give consideration to my post and offer your thoughts. I honestly want to know what you think. I am not attacking you in any way I assure you.

I certainly do not agree with Rowland on many things, and his tone is probably counterproductive for what he may actually mean to accomplish. But he also has stated some truths. If you could read my post and tell me what you think, i would love to hear it. If you would prefer to have a private discussion, I would be more than willing to give you my e mail address.

The good thing is that the organization does not teach the views on race as it did in the past. Would I like them to come out and acknowledge it ? Yes . Is it a deal breaker for me? No . Sadly many brothers were shaped by white supremacy which still exists . The position of the organization today is clear. I mean Jim Crow did not end until the 60s and one would be naive to think it has not affected Jehovahs people who are not perfect. Like I said I know a 25 year Watchtower Conductor , former Bethel elder who was removed from his position for racism . The organization is not tolerating it today . The enviroment of the United States made racist views easy. Read The Condemnation of Blackness , Slavery by Another Name. They give insight into the racial thoughts , policies and ideas that dominated the thinkng of this country.

You can see, Problemaddict, that Khalidx has no answers. It is pointless asking him questions. All he can say is ‘We shall see’. It seems he really does believe that I will be wiped at Armageddon, along with the bulk of humanity. Without the grand triumphal mass murder Armageddon scene to herald ‘Paradise Earth’, membership of the Witnesses constitutes an enormous negative. Khalidx is relying on JW TRUTH being true and feels no need whatever to answer my questions. There are no answers. JWdom is utterly indefensible.

I sincerely hope that Khalidx, and all other JWs, come to realise that Armageddon is not only a cruel, foul, arbitrary and quite absurd notion; it is also a complete fiction.

It is at least refreshing, ProblemAddict, that you know the essence of JW doctrine, i.e.’Be one of us or get zapped at Armageddon as The F and D Slave is the only route to salvation.’ What is tragic, however, is that, despite your knowledge, you continue to support this scourge, this obscene purveyor of lies. I wish you well, Problemaddict, and hope you soon escape the clutches of the WBTS Gov. Bod and do something better with your life.

‘The atheism school primes its students to prey purely on the lost, lonely and vulnerable; those who might be susceptible to the baseless you are not accountable for what you do myth. Faced with those of us who know the ways and history of the stupid cult, atheist have nothing to say.’ said Khalidx in his ignorance. There is no ‘atheism school’. I await evidence of the existence of the WBTS Jehovah before believing in it, just as you and I Khalidx, await evidence before believing in Allah who dictated the Koran to Mahomet via Angel Gabriel, or the Trinitarian God who has appointed the Pope. I have never met an atheist who believes we are not accountable for what we do; we are accountable to ourselves and our fellow humans. Hence some atheists describe themselves as humanists. Where atheists combine in organisations, as in the Humanist Association or National Secular Society, there is a spirit of free and open enquiry and discussion, not a set of rigid doctrinal rules invented by the bosses, with transgressors being excommunicated, disfellowshipped, shunned, burned at the stake or threatened with divine murder at Armageddon. Those cruel coercive methods belong to Militant Islam, Mediaeval Christendom, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and other God believing communities.

So, Khalidx, ‘Wait and See’, False analogies, a failure to describe any benefits of belonging to the WBTS, a failure to evidence the Gov. Bod’s claim to the Faithful and Discreet Slave title. This is the sum of your posts thus far. You have even acknowledged that you belong to a racist outfit. You are doing the campaign to destroy the WBTS a great service. Keep up the good work!

Stacy, Fred, Problemaddict and Khalidx. When the Tower falls, as fall it soon will, there is plenty of help available for exJWS adjusting to this beautiful world which their erstwhile bosses had condemned as Satanic.

Surf the net; reassure yourselves that JW TRUTH is a pack of lies and make for the Kingdom Hall exit before your Kingdom Hall is sold to pay for the enormous fines coming its way.

Humanity must take responsibility for its own limitations. That takes time, effort and expertise. Psycho checks, gun control, a responsible press that does not make celebrities out of killers could help to prevent further tragedies.

What do JWs offer? A fantasy mega murderer called Jehovah who will kill, at Armageddon, more children than even his Biblical record tells of. (Amalekites, Canaanites; the victims of Noah’s Flood etc.)

You, Khalidx, are tragically deluded if you actually believe in the JW imminent Armageddon. I believed it all as a child. The Jws have always been wrong about Armageddon, just as have all the Bible and Koran based apocalyptic prophets for the last two millennia.

How will you cope with life when your Kingdom Hall is sold, the WBTS is liquidated and unpaid mag. pushers like you are no longer needed? I hope you manage the adjustment. There will be plenty of others like you and help will be available. Best wishes.

JWs lure their unpaid staff with their idiot Paradise Earth delusion. They underplay the murder of the greater part of humanity which this ridiculous scenario entails. Why mourn the violent deaths of 20 children, Khalidx, when you, with your pathetic ‘we shall see what the future holds’, live your life in expectation of the divine murder of children by the billion?

You, Khalidx, will be surprised. Your Armageddon is as real as all the other JW Armageddons, 1914, 1925, 1941, 1975 and the Armageddon of my JW childhood, the one which was due before the death of the 1914 generation. Do you know anything about this crackpot cult to which you have dedicated your life?

Never expect stupid JWs to protect children. Read from their Bible in 2Kings 2:23-25 and ask how they explain the words “And [Elisha] he proceeded to go up from there to Bethel. As he was going up on the way, there were small boys that came out from the city and began to jeer him and that kept saying to him: “Go up, you bald head! Go up, you baldhead!” Finally he turned behind him and saw them and called down evil upon them in the name of Jehovah. Then two she-bears came out from the woods and went tearing
to pieces forty-two children of their number.”

DO YOU EXPECT JWs to be less stupid than these words??? Do not deceive yourself, instead search and see how they interpret it in their publications!!

‘We shall see my friend and one of us is going to be surprised . Time will tell ‘. The answers to humanity’s problems lie with humanity, Khalidx. Attending dreary meetings at a Kingdom Hall and listening to ever changing drivel issued by the old men of Brooklyn does nothing to improve humanity’s lot. Its results are merely death through refusal of blood, split families through shunning, nightmares about Armageddon and lack of education. Armageddon, Khalidx, is a fiction invented by the old gits in Brooklyn to keep you guys at your unpaid labours whereby to increase the capital value of the of the various corporations that make up the WBTS. Numbers of JWs are falling; Kingdom Halls are being sold; Brooklyn is up for sale; expensive court cases for protecting paedophiles will be the 2013 JW story. Any potential recruit can now surf the net and discover sites such as this one (and there are loads) and discover that JW TRUTH is a pack of lies. Best wishes Khalidx – I hope your post JW life (and when there is no WBTS you will have to manage your life without this expectation of Jehovah’s mass murder act) will be a fulfilling one.

You just need to contrast two ideas from the JWs Bible to understand WHO they are. Have Look and tell me:

“And Jehovah felt regrets that he had made men in the earth, and he felt hurt at
his heart. So Jehovah said: “I am going to wipe men whom I have created off the surface of the ground, from man to domestic animal, to moving animal and to flying creature of the heavens, because I do regret that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:6-8)

Then, … “And Jehovah began to smell a restful odor, and so Jehovah said in his
heart:m “Never again shall I call down evil upon the ground on man’s account, because the inclination of the heart of man is bad from his youth up; and never again shall I deal every living thing a blow just as I have done” (Genesis 8:21)

What!!! “never again shall I deal every living thing a blow just as I have done”. Harmageddon is just in the heads of BRAINWASHED JWs!!! Keep calm!

Why do you need a religion, Khalidx? I have been much happier since I realised that the Bible God is a figment of the human imagination. What, incidentally, could be more hateful than a religion which looks forward to the day of Armageddon when its God is due to murder the greater part of the human race for the capital crime of non Kingdom Hall attendance and non purchase and distribution of WBTS mags.?

Atheism is growing faster than any religion, even Islam. JW growth has stalled. The Gov. Bod. keep themselves to themselves. They are never available for comment, discussion or anything else. They do not even contact their ageing band of faithful followers. All they expect is that the mass of JW doorknockers will continue to spend their spare time and money in propping up the capital value of their publishing and property empire. ANd boy, will they need your cash this year. There is a stack of lawsuits coming its way, as well as a loss of charitable status for your most uncharitable, misery making little cult.

Be sure they produced material to fasten atheism. Read for instance w67 5/15 p. 319 Questions From Readers.

The question is:
● How can it be said that Jesus could have produced perfect children from an imperfect wife? Would not the children, according to the laws of genetics, have inherited imperfection from their mother?—F. S., England.

How can such a stupid question WORK TODAY. Their time to confuse people is over!!

Hi, people :). I’ve been a baptized jw since the convention of 2011 in July. I’m currently 19. One day I stumbled across a website made by Barbra Anderson called http://WWW.watchtowerdocuments.com it has opened my eyes ever since to search for the ” truth about the truth”.

Everything said in this article has made some of my questions answered but not all such as: how come jws are not encourage to learn the history of jws and the organization? How come we claim to be apart of a world wide educational work yet when I sit in the hall, I don’t get to ask questions and test what I’m being “fed” by the “faithful and discreet slave class”? How come jws are discouraged from using “outside sources” not published by the wt despite the fact that the wt always included “outside” or apostate information not published by them? I’m on a quest to understand what the jw organization is actually about and have barley begun to scratch the surface.

I like how this article includes proof and not just someones opinion. Because my grandmother was a jw I have her old books some going back as the 1950s. I was able to look up the article in the Feb 1 1952 edition of the watchtower and read with my own two eyes exactly what was shown here in this article. I wonder how my grandmother felt about this especially since we’re black but we do have some white people in our family tree. In pretty sure if we all could trace our family tree we’d discover that we all are related to each other some where down the line. Sorry if I seemed “off topic” in my comment.

I like your comments. You are lucky to have opened eyes before you loose too many years blind. Continue searching the truth about the truth you will be surprised to discover the power of “brainwashing”.

There are countless Facebook groups, formed for giving support to people like you, Jasmine, who are discovering that JW TRUTH is not anything like ‘truth’ as commonly understood. JW TRUTH is anything and everything that the Watchtower bosses invent at any particular time. You will soon discover that JW doctrine regarding Christmas, blood transfusion, qualification for admission to the ‘anointed’ class changes regularly, and at the whim of the JW bosses. Best wishes Jasmine. I hope you find your journey to the Kingdom Hall exit a fulfilling and liberating one.

Khalidx, simply because one chooses not to follow the diktats of a bunch of self righteous, self appointed old (and nearly all white) men in Brooklyn, does not mean that ‘anything goes’. The ever changing, murderous and paedophile protecting morality of the JW bosses is obscene. You, Khalidx, Jasmine, and anyone else should be able to determine a much more healthy and constructive moral code than that dictated by the JW bosses. You have failed utterly, Khalidx, to defend your cult and have resorted to complaining about racial prejudice. This is ironic as it comes from a guy defending an outfit whose founders were racists. Best wishes Khalidx. I hope you find a better community to commit to than the JWs. You deserve better.

And Khalidx, why get so upset, to the extent of calling me a slimy devil, when I advise Jasmine to make for the Kingdom Hall exit? Surely you do not see me as a threat to JW membership? If JWs are, as they claim, the exclusive bearers of Christian Truth, it is clear from her posts that Jasmine is sufficiently intelligent to discern for herself whether or no the JW claim is valid. She is also, I feel sure, eminently capable of making her own judgements about my posts and will choose to follow, ignore or reject what I write accordingly.

Please remember that the JW bosses discourage, and sometimes condemn, aspirations towards higher education. According to them, education is complete with the ability to read JW lit. and parrot the same message door to door. Educated congregations may use their intelligence, as Jasmine has so clearly done, to question JW propaganda and reach their own independent conclusions. So, do not worry, Khalidx; if the WBTS is really Jehovah’s exclusive earthly organisation, and I am nothing but a slimy devil, rest assured that Jasmine is capable of making up her own mind.

Rowland: Thank you, thank you, thank you! Your words reflect my sentiments exactly.I am an ex JW-never baptized thank goodness. My parents and siblings are still in it baptized and devout. Family as I knew it pre-JW no longer exists. You asked the JW’s about the benefits of belonging to the organization and none of them could give you an answer. Well, I can think of one profound benefit that I’m sure they don’t want to acknowledge. They get a free ride on the backs of all those who have fought for our civil rights, voting rights, all the freedoms we enjoy in this country. Since they are taught not to participate in the military, politics and voting, or the police force, they should all be thanking those of us “worldly” people who are protecting their quality of life in this country as they know it, which includes civil rights, protection from terrorists, gender and racial equality and a myriad of more rights. I hate to even imagine what our lives would be like if all people their mindset. For one, Black people would still be slaves. So for all of the JW’s out there who contribute nothing to society but get to enjoy all the benefits, you’re welcome.

Dear Cedars, Thank You So Much for a very timely and well researched article. I remember back in 1985 I went to visit my cousin’s kingdom hall in south carolina. The black witness were on one side and the white witnesses were on the other side. I did not noticed it at first because I was sitting in the back and paying attention to the meeting. Only when I stood to go to the bathroom during the meeting you could really see the separation. I was truly shocked. I was think to myself this is 1985!! So after the meeting and on our way home I confronted my cousin. I asked her about this. She looked very embarrassed and told me that she hoped that I did not noticed. She went to tell me that the white witnesses did not wish to sit with the black witnesses and that the white never invited the black witnesses over to their house for gatherings. The blacks would invite the whites over to their house for gatherings and sometimes a few would show up and then make an excuse on why they had to leave early. I was truly disgusted by this. I am from NYC so when I went back home to my congregation and told them what I saw they gave me that well the “light has not fully reached the brothers in the south.” ‘In due time they will see that racism is not acceptable.” Another thing the jw’s is made up of a lot of blacks, hispanics and asians. There has only been ONE black inside the governing body and he is serving today. ONLY ONE after all of these years. This is what we call a token black.

There was still segregation in JW Kingdom Halls in the Southern US as late as the 1970s And even in the 80s or 90s there was a reference in one of the publications to “ethnic” haircuts being restricted as if white haircuts were not ethnic. It caused major problems in the racially mixed congregations I was associated with. I was shocked because labeling haircuts as ethnic is as stupid as saying everyone has an accent but you. Who decides which ethnicity has more suitable haircuts?